Need WiFi for your FEZ Panda? GHI has a solution for you!

GHI is now offering a WiFi Ethernet bridge that works well with FEZ Connect Shield. It can also work with other shields or other Ethernet devices, even an XBOX!
http://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/product/263

Awsome. Now my plans for my yard mowing robot can include WiFi :slight_smile:

Awesome! this is some serious fun stuff. 8)

Nice price point. Most bridges like this are $50-$70. Even combined with the Connect, it’s less than the previous WiFi (only) offering.

I’ve used this guy before:

http://pkrobot.freehostia.com/Sparks2.htm

This is what I plan to use in my robot. If you take the cable and the plastic cover off, it weights just 15 grams!!!

@ ASR - Did you ever test battery life running the bridge? If so, can you post details? Also, ever get that beast in the air? Would love to see a video of it flying, or an image of the (mostly) finished airframe.

I did not test the battery life. However, it does get hot. 1.5W is not a small power footprint for devices running on battery, but to me it seemed to be even more than that. I did not do any quantitative analysis, so please don’t quote me on it. It did work wonderfully inside my basement, though.

As for the tricopter, I got it up in the air, only to find out that it was severely underactuated (that translates to less control over the UAV). Once I knew it was going to work, I lost interest, and salvaged some parts for some other interesting projects (I’m using the WiFi bridge in two wheeled balancing robot, for example). I plan to get back to it, but it will be a while.

I’ve investigated different communication channels to establish control/telemetry communication for UAV’s, and come to the conclusion that perhaps WiFi is not the best option. It is good for robotics, though. Alternatively, you can build in high degree of autonomy in the UAV, because expect large lapses in communication in real world environment. This is not allowed by law. You have to have pilot in the loop for commercial/hobby non-defense related projects.