Remote control with Xbee

From Hackaday:

The XBee Handheld Controller may be just the ticket to remotely control any project that comes off your workbench.

This isn’t the first remote controller we’ve seen that does just about everything, but it is the first one to include an XBee wireless transceiver to easily interface to your robotics project. The controller comes in two models, the Q4, which uses four Playstation-like joysticks, and the Q2, which uses proper remote control gimbal joysticks. Both the controllers have a slew of buttons, toggle switches, four rotary pots and a 2×20 LCD display.

After the break you can check out [Paul]‘s pitch explaining what these controllers can do and showing off a hexapod robot under the control of his Q4 controller. A very neat project, and we can’t wait to see this controller out in the field.

Yeah, this is really neat, except for the part about Xbees. I'd be way too concerned about losing the model when (not if) the Xbee bricks, which seems to happen way too often.

Hans, can you link to any of these arduino projects? I'd love to do something like that. I wondered if it was possible to output to an FrSky Tx hack module. Servo City has nice gimbals, just mount the whole thing in a nice laser cut aluminum case.

I've been trying to build a nice transmitter tray which my Tx will sit in anyway. I want something to rest my hands on so I can "pinch" the sticks. Currently I use this gawdawful old-school Robbe styrofoam tray. And the result is that the 2.4GHz antenna points right at the model which is bad.

It would be really cool to make something sort of like that case, but bigger. And have 6 pushbuttons for mode selection instead of a knob or switches. Set them up like radio-buttons, where only one is active (with an indicator light), and then the Tx simply transmits the PWM of the active mode.

Maybe even include the ArduStation, and a monitor (ABOVE the flight controls where it belongs instead of where they put it on that other "open" Tx.)

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Comments

Paul Feely July 11, 2012 at 2:38pm

Ardustations still work well - latest code adds MAVLINK 1.0 support. http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/ardustation-2-version-2-0-15-rele...

We're waiting for details of new hardware rumoured to be on development for some time...
Rob_Lefebvre July 11, 2012 at 1:32pm

Is the whole Ardustation thing still alive? I see they are still for sale, but something about it seems stale... Will it work with the latest code?
Rob_Lefebvre July 11, 2012 at 1:30pm

Yeah, this is really neat, except for the part about Xbees. I'd be way too concerned about losing the model when (not if) the Xbee bricks, which seems to happen way too often.

Hans, can you link to any of these arduino projects? I'd love to do something like that. I wondered if it was possible to output to an FrSky Tx hack module. Servo City has nice gimbals, just mount the whole thing in a nice laser cut aluminum case.

I've been trying to build a nice transmitter tray which my Tx will sit in anyway. I want something to rest my hands on so I can "pinch" the sticks. Currently I use this gawdawful old-school Robbe styrofoam tray. And the result is that the 2.4GHz antenna points right at the model which is bad.

It would be really cool to make something sort of like that case, but bigger. And have 6 pushbuttons for mode selection instead of a knob or switches. Set them up like radio-buttons, where only one is active (with an indicator light), and then the Tx simply transmits the PWM of the active mode.

Maybe even include the ArduStation, and a monitor (ABOVE the flight controls where it belongs instead of where they put it on that other "open" Tx.)
Alonso Rodriguez July 11, 2012 at 11:47am

I wonder if this controller can be modified to use the 3DR radios instead.

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