If it has built-in Bluetooth, the antenna is most likely going to be a micro-strip antenna - little more than a fancy trace on the circuitboard - and replacing it is likely not all that trivial a task. Remember that the higher you go in frequency, the more critical things like the exact dimensions and impedance of your antenna becomes. And 2.45 GHz is a very high frequency (this is why most Bluetooth antennas are just micro-strip traces on circuitboards to begin with).
Replacing a Bluetooth antenna is possible, but not necessarily recommended.
Could be like the ones some of the bluesmirfs, just a tiny little ceramic (i think) aerial thats as small as an smt resistor. For the lower classes of bluetooth it only needs to get across the room. If it wasn’t limited in some way then mobile phones would be pairing with half the town at once.
As far as the WiFi camera, you setup the camera to have an IP through your wireless system. It now has a little computer which takes a photo, digitizes it, and hosts it on a web server. Your computer just has to download the photo and process it. It gets a little more complex (streaming protocol) for video, but same idea, just 15-30 times a second.
Hope you can picture it more easily.
I think Seamus is being a tad too conservative here, though he is 100% right that if you don’t know what you’re doing it is not advised to mess around with WiFi/ Bluetooth antennas as you can make things worse. So I’d recommend first trying to increase range some other way.
If you can open up the device without damaging anything and take a few pcitures, I’m sure everyone here could give more help. I personally don’t have a LEGO NXT.
To modify the antenna properly, I’de check out some connectors sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=593 and then simply buy a better antenna. Compared to the microstrip in there even a small whip antenna is going to be better. Though you can pay for some nice 6 or 9 dB ones which should boost your range even more.
ok, it seems a bit clearer (I’m more a visual guy, so it takes me some time to undestand something like this righten… ), but, how do I send the iage wirelessely to my router (IP adress, webserver… well evrything)?
oh and another question : willl it (the video transmition) ack like if I was downloading stuff from the net? because we have a limit and I depass it my parents will kill me
OK, well I don’t have the LEGO NXT yet, I will buy it when I have some money, probably this summer when I will have time to work on it.
ok, but I have to buy the right antena or it wont work?
I think my first thing will be to get my camera to send the video to my computer. have to go
I suggest you read up on the documentation. dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=459 Its really simple though. First you make sure you have Java installed. You then connect the ethernet cable to the camera and your router. Your router asigns the camera an IP address through DHCP (assuming it defaults to assigning any new computer an IP, some more paranoid routers might require you to add the device’s MAC address to an allow list before they assign an IP even on wired devices). The camera’s install software scans the local network and looks for a device which matches the camera. It then shows you this list, you select the camera, and try to log in via the login utility. The default administrator password, user names, and user passwords are all blank, so after you test it works, you should at least setup an administrator password if not a regular user for normal use in addition. Then you goto the wireless option in the magement console and add your wireless info. (like SSID, WEP/WPA and key, etc.). Then you can remove the cable and work wirelessly. You also set the desired video options, FPS, resolution, compression, etc. To view the video feed just try 192.168.0.20 (or the IP/ name you set it) in any web browser with Java, like K-Meleon, Firefox, IE, etc. and enter the username and password. Note if using RoboRealm, it has a module to do this for you, you supply RoboRealm with URL, username, and password and it saves this autoconnecting to the camera.
If you have your own wireless router, the IP camera will be on your internal network (think private subnet - 192.168.0.x). It won’t go any communication with the internet in general unless you purposely make it able to do so (requires setting some routing rules in the router’s config) and trying to access it from a remote location with a proper username and password.
As far as Bluetooth if the LEGO comes with a dongle, great. If not, you might have to buy one try it, and if it doesn’t work try again. As far as antennas, first see if you can get 100ft with the LEGO module and your dongle. If you can’t get 100ft with the LEGO but can with the dongle and another Bluetooth device, then and only then, would I open up the LEGO module and solder on the above SMA connector to use a different antenna. Yes, this might involve getting another Bluetooth device if you don’t have one. I suggest an A2DP headphones set, since they’re nice and you can use them with your cellphone/ PocketPC (if you have or will be getting one with Bluetooth). The anetnna that the camera comes with would work for testing, since its also SMA, though obviously to run both you’d need to buy another one.
That camera is NOT USB. This doesn’t work if you have a USB camera. You need to buy that specific model (or the related model such as the 802.11b version) for these instructions. There are other wireless cameras from other companies, generally these do NOT have USB ports either.
The whole idea is there is a little computer in the cylinder of the camera. It runs a webserver which transforms the data from the camera into something useful like JPEG stills and MPEG movies.
I have wanted a LEGO Mindstorms NXT set for quite awhile now, but don’t know when I will manage to get it. It would be great for the “Gadget Time” sessions I am doing at this rehabilitation center where I did my surgery recovery at. I am volunteering three days a week down there now and doing “Gadget Time” on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
), but, how do I send the iage wirelessely to my router (IP adress, webserver… well evrything)?
have to go
