Just a little background, I am a highschool student, I have been tinkering with electronics for a while (mainly programming). I now have a rover, wireless camera with pan and tilt, a little gripper and I have a AL5D arm coming in tomorrow for it . But I am tired of the 10 meter range of the PS2 Controller
So, from what I gathered through my naive research; I can buy two Xbee modules, plug them into âexplorer boardsâ and they can communicate like a serial cable but have ranges of around a mile? (even one with 40 miles ha)
Note, I only use lower power XBees, for high power ones you need to verify that the boards you choose can handle the current.
As for Camera range, I donât believe that XBEEs will give you the bandwidth you need for a camera.
As for viable, it depends on what you wish to use to control your robot, Several of us have DIY remote controls based on XBees, which you can see in several threads including: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=5447
Thank you for the response, I have seen the regulated board before and thought about using it but I canât seem to find any diagrams or schematics to hook up to the SSC-32.
Could someone please provide a link or image of a regulated board with Xbee connected with a SSC-32
Also, how do I verify if the high power Xbees work with the SSC?
And viable meaning; is the Xbee fast enough to control a rover in real time?
I have not used the Sparkfun with an SSC-32, so not sure if it works as I mentioned with other Atmegas I have had better luck with the Parallax ones. Why, The sparkfun does not do anything with itâs output level back to the board, which for some atmegas, the high is not high enough, where as the Parallax ones do voltage conversions both ways.
As for hooking either of them up, pretty easy. You solder in wires into the regulated board, or .1" Male connectors. At the other end of these wires you should have .1" female pins. I often get lazy and cut a servo extender wire in half so I have the wire with the right type connections on one endâŠ
Then you make your connections, assuming the standard 3 pin connector, I solder the other end to sparkfun regulated, with:
Black -> GND
Red -> DOUT
Yellow -> DIN.
I then take a different wire. Sometimes I simply take the other part of the cable I cut in half and strip the red wire with its female connector out, and solder it to +5V on the Sparkfun
Then to hookup to two, you remove the two jumpers near the 9 pin connector on the SSC-32 and plug the 3 pin cable from regulated into the 3 pin connection on the SSC-32 with the black wire going to ground. You then plug the separate red wire into one of the unused power pins on the SSC-32.
As for high power, it is not the SSC-32 that is the issue, but your regulated controller. I know in the parallax case they recommend the second one I mentioned in the previous post for higher power as it has a bigger power regulator on that board.
Thank you for the help, that is the information I needed. I would really like to know 100% that the high-power xbees will work with the SSC-32, so if anyone has done so please let me know.
I was also thinking that maybe I can use the Bot Board with basic atom pro 28 to control the bot through Xbee. I am already controlling it with the PS2 code and loving it . Is it possible to use the Bot Board? Which one is better/easier?
The main thing I am curious about is the 60mW Xbee, I need to know for sure that it will work with the SSC-32. [size=85](EDIT : nevermind that point)[/size]
I was unable to see the distance the video system will operate at. I believe itâs also a device that requires an FCC license, but I donât see any mention of it on their site. Edit: they do mention⊠âRacewood 0.9TM-500 Wireless Audio Video Transmitters may not be legal for using in some countries.â Sorta vague eh? I wouldnât go with it without some feedback from other users that it has the range you need.
From from research I have found that 900mhz at 500mw produces around 1 mile in range. I also talked to the technical support on the site and he confirmed that range as well. He also said it was a good paring with a 2.4Ghz RC system (the Xbees). I would like to hear from someone that has done this setup before and what problems they ran into in the process .
EDIT: and it says
EDIT: Just talked to support again, he said that the legal power is probably 10 to 50mw in the US. But he also said that the only way someone could measure it is if they attached equipment to it, so I could easily get away with it, at least until Iâm not lazy and get a amateur license :mrgreen:
As I mentioned earlier I have had better luck connecting the Parallax adapters to ATmega based boards, such as Arduino. Again I have not tried the sparkfun regulated on an SSC-32 and it may work just fine.
The sparkfun adapter appears to use a KB33 voltage regulator which is rated for 150ma. The parallax lower end adapter (parallax.com/Store/Accessori ⊠fault.aspx) has a 100ma voltage regulator, and for the PRO xbees, if they are used for continuous communication, they recommend going up to their better adapter. They say:
Note: this SIP has an LM2937-3.3 adapter which I believe is rated for 500ma.
Again this may not be a problem, but thought I would give a heads upâŠ
Thank you for the response Kurt, but I read form multiple sources that when using the Xbee pros and the regulated board under these circumstances, people have not ran into any issues. Maybe if they were using the full 250kbps then the thing would burn out.
hahah got in the parts about an hour ago and I just got it working. I now have my video equipment (1 mile) and 60mw xbee pros (also 1 mile) working great. Now its time to test everything out
. But I am tired of the 10 meter range of the PS2 Controller 
I wouldnât go with it without some feedback from other users that it has the range you need.