and with those 2 attached I will be able to send primitive data such as strings 2 ways between a java program and the robot. I need to be able to process the data received from the robot in a java program.?
I assume the antenna stacks on the usb adapter so how does the usb adapter attach to the UNO?
I see some people talking about needing 2 of the antennas for PC communication why is this?
Sorry I wasn’t very clear about number 2. I meant the transceiver module itself stacks on the usb adapter and then I program the transceiver through the usb adapter yes?
If I only have 1 usb adapter and 2 trasceiver modules how do I physically connect the module to the computer to receive data?
I’m just afraid that I’m not quite understanding what hardware I need for this, it’s all very confusing
It’s even easier than that. You plug the XBee module into the adapter and plut the adapter into the computer (via USB cable). Using whatever program you want (Arduino IDE or other), you just send normal serial commands via that COM port and the module takes care of transmitting whatever it receives. You don’t “program” the XBee module.
One XBee is plugged into the IO shield and the other is used as indicated in #1 above.
Ah I see I was under the impression that the usb adapter was somehow meant to be connected to the arduino, thank you for clearing that up for me!
Do you know if it is possible to use java or an external program to send and receive the data to the robot using the serial connection? I need to be able to process the data the robot is getting from the ultrasonic range finder.
No reason except that the DFRobot one is the one used in the official DFRobotShop Rover XBee kit and is less expensive than most of the others.
There are a few competing USB to XBee breakout boards, and the one from Sparkfun should work just fine as well.
Hi all. We’ve been playing with the exact configuration described in the original post ( Rover V2 with WiFi Shield RB-Ard-38 ). Using the advice provided here, we’ve got the whole thing operational, mostly.
For software, we’ve modified the WASD program. We have full 2 way communications with the Arduino serial monitor, and other simple terminal emulators.
Everything works except for the Pin 7 conflict that prevents us from spinning the right motor backwards. We tried the various suggestions here to no avail. Not entirely mission critical as we can go forward, left, right, and stop.
With that core functionality our next experiment is to write a simple Android app to control the Rover from any Android device.
If the Pin 7 conflict can be solved, we’d sure appreciate it.
Have you tried changing the handshake pin in the wifi library? Due to the power issues I was having I never confirmed if it worked or not but in theory it sounds solid
And that’s when all our work started today. We had partial functionality, but it didn’t seem to want to go Forward & Backward anymore, although Left & Right worked when only using 1 motor. When we tried both motors, it would lurch the motors a bit and then drop our connection.
LONG story (many hours) short, the solution came when I noticed the red led on the Rover went out and came back on when we tried to go forward. That told me the Rover was resetting itself… that’s a slightly different story than “dropping the connection” although the end result is the same.
Our motors were both set to speed 150, well below the max 255. But I wondered if we were drawing too much power, thus tripping some circuit protection in the Rover. Arbitrarily dropped speed to 100 , we fixed the problem.
So, we have full WASD operation via WiFi. Now we can get on with some serious programming, the thing we’re really into.
I doubt this will work with the 3.4 battery provided with the kit. To save the grief of running down batteries, we’re doing all our testing with a 9v adapter robotshop.com/ca/en/sfe-powe … 650ma.html with the Rover on a testbed, And the 7.4 LIPO I mentioned earlier is the way to go for battery power.
Good luck with your project. You now know it’s possible.
