USB wireless transmitter/receiver pair?

Help & Support Robot Parts
1

As I look at products, it seems I could build a USB connected (to my PC) device that is a wireless transmitter to control a remote servo (no feedback required) with…

1 Arduino Duemilanove USB Microcontroller Module
1 Arduino Xbee Shield Wireless Module
2 Zigbee Xbee Series 2 wireless modules

Right?

However that seems like overkill. All I want is to wirelessly control a single servo from my USB port on my PC, 20 feet away. How can I simplify this?

Ed

2

I like the idea of bluetooth however the data I’m sending to the servo is currently being sent to the USB port. I wrote the code in AutoitScript using a dll (for USB) that came with the servo hobby kit. So I’ll have to research if there’s a dll for bluetooth.

Also my servo controller board is USB… so if you have a recommendation for a bluetooth server controller board and a dll that I could use to get my data out the bluetooth port I’d love that.

3

Can’t find a bluetooth dll so that just became complicated.

Your Droid SAS MuIn with XBee is cool because it has the servo control onboard. But then I have the same problem of no dll to send data to the servo control.

Can I use an ‘SFE XBee Explorer USB’ with an ‘XBee Transceiver’? If I put this “Xbee pair” on each end of my “link”, would that work?

Computer USB out – XBee pair – - - - – XBee pair – my servo controller.

My computer would still send out the USB port and my servo controller would think it’s directly connected… Yes??

4

I tried the OnShine 433 Mhz High Sensitivity transmitter/receiver pair…

RB-Ons-02

It does transmit/receive but the received signal is dirty and I don’t know why. It makes my servo erratic so it doesn’t work. Unfortunately I don’t know if it’s defective, or not (the servo is fine). I don’t know enough to troubleshoot further. If you find a solution please post back.

I’d suggest you try it, it’s cheap, and I think it SHOULD work. Let me know.

5

Hi there!

I’ve the same problem, did you got a resolution?

best regards

6

Hi Ed,

A bluetooth connection would reduce it to two products: the bluetooth dongle and the servo controller board. This assumes you have a Bluetooth connection on your computer. Another option is WiFi using the WiFi shield, but again this assumes you have a WiFi connection.

For XBee, the Droids SAS MuIn includes an XBee connection (XBee sold separately) and servo control. You would need two XBee modules and a SFE XBee Explorer (or similar) to connect the XBee to your computer. There are very few single servo controllers on the market. If you want to use Arduino, the products you listed are the best choice, though you might take note of the Seedstudio Stalker.

7

Hi,

Although inexpensive, the units should indeed work. Can you describe your setup and which Onshine units you are using? Did you try simple commands to start with and then proceed to more complex commands?

Sincerely,