I don't know if anyone posted about this before (I missed it if they did).It's on display at the CES in Las Vegas.It struck me, because when I first started playing, I wondered why there weren't any 802.11 telemetry/control models discussed on here. Now I find a quadricopter design, that looks incredibly refined.No price yet (Their website mentions a loaner and developer support for $1200 US)Via EngadgetParrot Website
One important issue I failed to mention, is when using 802.11b/g/n, there must be a access point or operate in ad-hoc mode... I'm wondering if it is a full access point or operate in ad-hoc mode...
I'm planning on doing a lot this myself, one of the BIGGEST issues I have is microchip muddled the gcc port so bad... so... I'm going to use a clean port and redo the API and use JTAG for debugging. So, an entire project all based on OpenSource using openOCD for the JTAG interface for debugging. I did a Port a long time ago for IDT ('334 MIPS32) so, it should be straight forward. http://www.schmalzhaus.com/UBW32/ there is a new one coming out at the end of Q1. It would be nice to use a ARM, but the only one I found was a TI part that has an external memory... anyway... see how this goes...
UBW32 (32 bit PIC32 based USB Bit Whacker) Project
Main website for UBW32 project - a PIC32 based UBW
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I'm going to try and use a PIC32 (UBW32 from spakrfun) Host USB to 802.11 dongle, this way can replace radio or use any usb dongle (that has open source support). That's the goal anyway...
Yeah, I think I'd be using an external antenna...maybe even a separate router for better signal strength.
What routerboard are you using? I'd been happy with just a microcontroller on board up till now, but this has me rethinking that. If I can find a fairly cheap computer that can run wifi and talk directly to the sensors and escs it might be worth the extra weight and power drain.
I'm thinking that the latency (response time) over wifi would kinda suck compared to traditional controllers. The protocol just has so much more overhead. Even compared to xbee. Would be great though to just have one digital connection for control, telemetry and video. I may have to give wifi a second look...
The mention a downward facing cam for stability. Which sounds like optical flow. I wonder if that could actually take over for accelerometers and/or gyros on board.
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Yeah, I think I'd be using an external antenna...maybe even a separate router for better signal strength.
What routerboard are you using? I'd been happy with just a microcontroller on board up till now, but this has me rethinking that. If I can find a fairly cheap computer that can run wifi and talk directly to the sensors and escs it might be worth the extra weight and power drain.
The mention a downward facing cam for stability. Which sounds like optical flow. I wonder if that could actually take over for accelerometers and/or gyros on board.
Hmm...lots to think about! =)
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Engadget report