My current electronics project is to take a toy RC car and turn it into a web-controlled Robo-car using a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino.
Luckily for me other people have already accomplished this task so I won't exactly be blazing any trails with this project. Seems like a good stepping stone towards more advanced robotic vehicles.
I'll be using the Raspberry Pi as a Node.js server which handles all the user interface and communication. The Arduino will be connected directly to the steering servo and the DC motor. There is a handy module already created for Node.js called Johnny-Five which enables communication between the Pi and the Arduino out of the box. For a psuedo-real-time experience I'll be using socket.io for communication between the client and server.
The Pi will also be equipped with an RPi Camera for video/photo taking.
I've chosen to use a toy car so that I don't have to worry about building a chassis, getting steering working, etc... It cost like $12 at Wal-Mart anyway.
So far I've stripped the RC car down to it's body and base electronic components. Most of these components I'm going to strip out too. Photos are attached.
Next step is starting on the base Node.js server, creating a server which can take and display photos from the RPi camera. Also, I need to practice wiring up the Arduino to a servo.
PS. I would have made this a blog post but attaching photos there is too much work (no upload option) so I didn't.
Luckily for me other people have already accomplished this task so I won't exactly be blazing any trails with this project. Seems like a good stepping stone towards more advanced robotic vehicles.
I'll be using the Raspberry Pi as a Node.js server which handles all the user interface and communication. The Arduino will be connected directly to the steering servo and the DC motor. There is a handy module already created for Node.js called Johnny-Five which enables communication between the Pi and the Arduino out of the box. For a psuedo-real-time experience I'll be using socket.io for communication between the client and server.
The Pi will also be equipped with an RPi Camera for video/photo taking.
I've chosen to use a toy car so that I don't have to worry about building a chassis, getting steering working, etc... It cost like $12 at Wal-Mart anyway.
So far I've stripped the RC car down to it's body and base electronic components. Most of these components I'm going to strip out too. Photos are attached.
Next step is starting on the base Node.js server, creating a server which can take and display photos from the RPi camera. Also, I need to practice wiring up the Arduino to a servo.
PS. I would have made this a blog post but attaching photos there is too much work (no upload option) so I didn't.