[091labs-public] Mini Maker Fair Dublin

[Android Stream]

Mini Maker Fair Dublin fast approaching would be nice to have something nice from 091 Labs for it. I think we can still go under TOG. The date of the fair is the 14th of July.

I'm an software/android person with very little to none electronics knowledge but I would like to team up with other members to make something with other areas of expertise to build somethings. I can code the Android side of the project while other members can do other things.

The obvious idea would be to make a remote control car with an android phone driving the car. You could even put on a webcam and have a HUD on the phone to control the car even if you don't see the car.

Other ideas.. A door lock/unlock from Android phone by sending sms or else...

I'm open to suggestions and I hope there's more people like me who just wants to hack/make/build

[Jeffrey Roe]

Hello all,
A stand as been set aside for you as you put in an application to the
open call. All update emails have been going to the info@ account.

If you have any questions about the faire do let me know.
Jeffrey Roe,
www.tog.ie

[Ciarán McCool]

I've finished constructing the areoquad frame, all I need for it to work is to get my radio kit and motors from Dublin and buy a 3cell 11.1v lipo battery and some props. We can attach a wireless camera to it (or a normal camera w/ a transmitter) for FPV flight

C

[Android Stream]

Thank you Jeffrey...

Ciaran... aeroquad much cooler than remote control car... Would you be interested on making it compatible with Android?
For this to be able be controlled from a phone would need bluetooth or wifi, which will an extra shield. Perhaps another idea would be use an extra phone on the aeroquad to send the signal to the other android (controller).

Could we have a meeting of these days? Soon if possible. I can be in the labs any evening this week to talk about it.

Any other people interested in collaborating??

[gerryk]

I am well on my way with my Arduinified RC BigTrak. I am running the two main motors from the Arduino, also a FPV pan/tilt camera mount, which doubles up as a sonar mount.

Might be able to bring that along.

--

[Alanna Kelly]

Ye show off the guitar pedal prototyping system too, I can have version 2.0 of that ready by then.

[Android Stream]

Yesterday in the labs with a few members was the idea to use one of the donated remote control cars, and build an android remote control using an Arduino and two Android phones for the wireless communication. It is probably the simplest and cheapest think we could come up with.

Duncan is working on the car and electronics side of the project and I will work on the Android. We will need to apps for this. One on each phone to talk to each other.

We only have 4 weeks and time is scarce but we start by building the minimum and expand from there.

If you like to get involve get in touch with one of us...

[Ciarán McCool]

Not sure if this would be applicable to your project but there is an arduino shield for a module  called the xbee. Not sure if you can use it for wireless command but you can definitely get real time telemetry using it 

[Duncan Thomas]

If we had a pair of them, that would be fantastic, but I'm not aware of anybody willing to shell out.

A Bluetooth shield would be even easier in this case, but again we don't have one.

Using a pair of phones makes the camera part easy, and I think makes the cost of entry lower - the temporary use of two phones (or a phone and a PC/tablet/website/...), an arduino, a lead that is trivially made for a few quid from maplin and a toy car actually makes this a really nice faire project...

[Android Stream]

I also like to open source the code and make the project public. So, if any body else would like to do something similar can can do so using our code.

Also, I forgot to mention. We need a USB host cable. Does anybody has a spare one? or anybody would like to make one

[gerryk]

An alternative might be one of these little guys... http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr703n
They are available on eBay for~ €15 with free shipping. Basically, it gives you a wifi router with a USB and serial connector. Much cheaper and more flexible than zigbee or other point to point solutions IMO.
Also, might be possible to connect a webcam for streaming video.

--

[gerryk]

I will open-source the code from my project too, once it's done, and made somewhat presentable.

--

[Jeffrey Roe]

I have a set I could loan you, if I get them back in working order
Jeffrey Roe,
www.tog.ie

On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 1:22 PM, Duncan Thomas <duncan...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Paul Mac Eoin]

I've seen something similar done before. AR Drone, by Parrot,

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-applications/14340-ar-drone-quadcopter-api-available.html

^^ might help.

[Peter]

hi,

do you guys need any help with this event? i will be going along anyway and can help setting up/manning desk/car transport etc.

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Paul Mac Eoin

Sent: 06/19/12 04:12 PM

To: 091labs...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: [091labs-public] Mini Maker Fair Dublin

[Oisin Greaney]

I hope to have my cardboard robot hand... gauntlet... thing up and running by then with a better control mechanism.

[Matthew Kolder]

If you need an Android phone I have an old LG Optimus that could be of some use for the project. It has a decent camera and wifi.

[Android Stream]

That would be great because I need two phones at hand to try the wifi peer connection and transfer of commands etc..

[Ciarán McCool]

I have a Sony Ericson Xperia... old model, x8 if I'm not mistaken

[Android Stream]

The Android RC car is coming along nicely. I have the accelerometer controls all done and at the moment working on the connection between the phones. We have gone with the new api introduce with Ice-Cream Sandwich wifi p2p which allows for connections between multiple devices without the need of internet connection. I haven't fully tested how far this will reach but I know that at least it easily reaches from each side of the labs and we may get double that if we are lucky. Far enough thinking that is coming from a small device. I think this was the best option with our budget (€0) and feature requirements. We will add video feedback later on.

Alana has been working on the electronics which already has the demo already done. Now, she is going to make a custom board to put on the car.

I just have just over 2 weeks to finish the project. We only have the chassis and we still need a cover for the car, a holder for the phone so that it points forward to use the phone camera to send the video back. and of course we need thinks to make it look pretty and cool.

Anybody interested on pitching to build something for the car? We could have lights, flames, a flag, rocket launchers, what ever you fancy...