Control your R/C vehicle from your iPhone
And just like that… the jitter’s gone!
I’ve made a few modifications to my Arduino sketch to keep it small… and I’m happy with it! I’ve learnt that the smaller the footprint on a device with limited memory the faster it can process things. So I’ve gone from an Arduino Sketch of roughly 100 lines of code… to something so slim and simple that it almost feels wrong to use it! Below is the graph from the output of the serial socket…
I’m releasing this code… now… I’m feeling a little nervous about releasing it… If you’re going to copy and paste this code, could you please at least leave the credit at the top? I’ve worked hard on this, and I didn’t do it so some twat can steak his claim on my work!
That’s right, no advanced algorithms, no crazy conversions, I’m just taking the first 3 bytes of the buffer from the socket and assigning it to the acceleration, and the last 3 bytes and assigning it to the steering… There are no heavy HTTP protocols to handle the requests, just one socket stream connection from the iPhone to the Arduino/BlackWidow! I can’t believe that the last 4 months of R&D has led to 8 lines of code!
Just to show you what I mean, the sketch started out like this…
Which works fine if you’re not trying to push through 60 requests per second to a device with 2 KB of SRAM and 1 KB of EEPROM. Just to put it into perspective the iPhone 3GS has 256mb’s of RAM…
Update… sorry guys, I’ve taken the code down… for now! I’ll put it back up once I’ve made my mind up about how to distribute it!
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What a week!
about 3 years ago - 6 comments
Last Thursday I took this project to my uni’s (Bournemouth) sports hall to take it for a spin. I can say that after 6 months of development, money wasting, blood swear and tears it nearly made me shed a tear to see this fully working with no issues whatsoever (apart from the camera static) in
New Board, New Ideas
about 3 years ago - No comments
I know I’ve been away for a while but this is why… On the left you can see the old Arduino and on the right you can see the new streamlined Black Widow from Async Labs, which is just a modified Arduino with WiFi built into it. I’ve also decided to go down the sockets
Driving over the internet…
about 3 years ago - 2 comments
A friend of mine (Tom) wanted to drive the car over the net, thought I’d give it a go as I haven’t even tried it yet. I’ve basically opened up my network so Tom has direct access to the car from a few URL’s, when he clicks on the URL’s I’m just messaging him telling
How Annoying!
about 3 years ago - No comments
Alright, so I’ve been working on the iPhone app today and thought I’d start with something simple, you know, “press button car go forward” kind of thing child’s play… one might think. Well I was wrong! Unfortunately from my testing the WiShield can only handle 1 http request per second, in laymen’s terms think of
That’s one sexy project box…
about 3 years ago - No comments
Alright… so I went out to Maplin today and thought I’d splash out a bit and get a sexy project box, dremel grinder and some accessories… the result of this… that bad boy car’s completely wire free! Pictures below! Share and Enjoy:
It’s 1:47…
about 3 years ago - No comments
It’s 1:47 in the morning, my eyes hurt and I’ve voluntarily been at it all day messing around with this WiShield… I can tell you that it’s finally paid off! I’ve managed to get the WiShield to give an XML response based on a URL passed to it… Basically creating a REST webservice on the
The WiShield has arrived…
about 3 years ago - 3 comments
Wi-Fi enabling the Arduino from a hacked LaFonera+ router has proved tedious and annoying at best. I wouldn’t recommend it to any one unless you’re willing to deal with the agro of having to spend vast amounts of time flashing it and rebooting it every time a serial connection to the Arduino board drops. Luckily
We Have Comms!
about 3 years ago - No comments
I’ve finally managed to flash my LaFonera+ through serial with DD-WRT, so I can send commands through SSH wirelessly to my Arduino board to control the servo’s. I’ve also managed to power my LaFonera+ from the Arduino. I haven’t connected up the TX for now because I have no intention of letting the arduino talk
about 2 years ago
Out of curiosity, are you going to be posting code? It would be extremely helpful for the rest of us! (either iPhone or Arduino code… or both!)
about 2 years ago
Good work man, are you still thinking of distributing the code under license?
I’m mostly interested in the sockets communication parts of things.
cheers
about 3 years ago
Awesome code reduction man! I’m getting my Black Widow and a liPo battery in the next few days. Then I’ll rip off your code and become famous!!
Just messing with you. totally sexy strip down. way to go.
about 3 years ago
Haha, you better not! There’s nothing I can do really other than complain! Thanks Buddy
about 3 years ago
I’m liking your code shrink, have you thought about using iOSC on the iPhone/iPod Touch and using WiShield/Black Widow to decode the response instead of starting an app from scratch.
Either way you go, I’m still going to be impressed.
Keep it going.
about 3 years ago
I’d had a look at this, there are a few projects out there using this at the moment, but I found that iOSC was quite limited. Writing it from scratch allowed me to make a much more responsive car, so there’s next to no lag between the car and the iPhone! Thanks for the heads up though I appreciate it!
about 3 years ago
I expect a test video now, another that makes me laugh for a different reason – its all that keeps me sane at the moment!
Jokes aside, really good work mate – can’t wait to see the working product and have a play!
about 3 years ago
Cheers Dave,
Lol a video will be posted shortly, I’m just eagerly awaiting the post man to deliver my Lithium Ion battery today so the Arduino doesn’t keep cutting out when it’s not connected to a regulated power source.
Well I’m planning to have a closed beta for IMPs around the 7th of April in the Sports hall at uni to get some user feedback so I’ll put you on my list.