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Help wanted for top secret project

Posted by Jordi Muñoz on January 2, 2011 at 5:00pm

Happy new year folks!

DIYdrones hardware development team needs some help, if you think you can contribute in something please PM, our requirements are:

-Any microcontroller capable to handle a little web server can be used.

-The hardware must have WiFi access (behave as an access point).

-The hardware must have SD card slot (where you can store html files).

-Must be cheap (< $100).

The system must be capable to read a HTML file stored on the SD card (including pictures) and create a web server accessible via WiFi (acting as an access point). When the user is connected to the Wifi device-must type any direction like "http://192.168.1.100" and be able to load the HTML files stored on the SD. Something similar to a home router.

The HTML files must be able to read/write to the IO, analog and UART pins of the same microcontroller....

What we need from you are suggestions of the right hardware, software contributions and connections to anybody capable to help us.

Anyone? ;-)

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Comments

Coby January 11, 2011 at 8:22am

so a shop that sells the ethernut 3 in bulk for 185 US (if i did the conversion right). seems a bit pricey. but perhaps the open design will help things move along.

http://www.egnite.de/en/egnite-shop/ethernut-31.html
Coby January 11, 2011 at 6:56am

@danny web enabled GCS to solve cross-platform issues and allow use with smaller devices via web browser. so not in plane and xbee will still be used as telemetry radio (as far as I can tell).
Coby January 11, 2011 at 5:29am

unfortunately that last link i gave was not very helpful. lots of broken links and hardware that's way more than 100 bucks. the one link that did look promising was the stuff from ethernut (i think i saw that in a previous comment?)

http://www.ethernut.de/en/hardware/ethernuts.html

open hard/software running atmel.

and ethernut 3 has sd but would still need a wifi addon and i have no idea what it would cost to build it.

http://www.ethernut.de/en/hardware/enut3/index.html

Ethernut Hardware
Coby January 11, 2011 at 5:14am

@darren, yes but using a UAV Dev Board. I have two axis camera stabilization working with ArduPiratesNG code and an APM (ground test only), but as far as I know the only IMU that supports camera stab and tracking right now is UAV Dev Board. just switch camera with antenna of right design for passive tracking and if someone wrote the code i guess you could do an active tracker and pass db signal or something to tune the track.

but back to the topic. this is just for reference as it is something built at or below price point that has surprisingly rich feature set (but not much output power). it does not meet all the requirements but proves the concept doable at price i think. and perhaps a future model that has xbee 900 for telemtry, 802.11b/g for local area wlan, and 802.11n for still/video backhaul is not that far off.

http://www.open-mesh.com/index.php/enterprise-mesh/mr500-mesh-route...

Apparently it's a rebranded Engenius 9850 and is not as open as previous open mesh stuff.

And I found this page written back in 2006 which lists a bunch of the then available embedded ip type devices

http://www.beyondlogic.org/etherip/ip.htm
Darren January 10, 2011 at 7:11pm

Meanwhile back at the ranch... Has anyone thought of instead of camera tracking, but base station tracking. in other words, keep a high gain directional antenna aboard the aircraft pointed at the ground station
Darren January 10, 2011 at 7:03pm

ya you go with that...
Developer

Michael Smith January 10, 2011 at 6:20pm

@darren you started this sub-thread with

I've been thinking of something along the lines of encorporating a good camera with the Eye-Fi http://www.eye.fi/how-it-works/basics (Power and Range is really the only issues.)

I've just been agreeing that indeed yes, power and range are the issue, though you seem to have missed that with your later replies.
Darren January 10, 2011 at 6:07pm

@michael, can you not say anything other than derogatory remarks? I've made my point, you've made yours. you said hd cant be done and it can. now all you can say is range... all you've said to others this whole blog has been your wrong, or your irrelevant. personally you should be a tad more polite IMO.
^^Johnny5 January 10, 2011 at 3:49pm

Yes that's right. But, if dd-wrt is used you have an option for power output. Max about 300mW. Default is 71mW. Very very good reception. Can extend range by using other antennas.
Developer

Michael Smith January 10, 2011 at 2:27pm

@jean the WL500gP is an interesting device, and the price point isn't bad. It would be an interesting platform with a couple of downsides:

- not designed for battery-powered operation (spec sheet says ~10W), which may be an issue for some users.

- it's a consumer product in a segment well known for rapid product churn, so it might be difficult to ensure supply for any length of time.

You could mitigate the latter with a wholesale port into the dd-wrt environment and count on migrating to another router with a similar feature set of course.