Cheap Wi-Fi controlled helicopter
James Nugen
controlled helicopter on sale:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12237802&filterName=Type&filterValue=Air
When I got home I did some web searching and found it even cheaper at Target:
http://www.target.com/p/Wi-Fi-Helicopter/-/A-13547877#?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=Google_PLA_df&LNM=%7C13547877&CPNG=toys&ci_sku=13547877&ci_gpa=pla&ci_kw=
It is controlled with a iPhone/Android app. And according to the user
manual, the existing software supports up to 12 helicopters in the
same general area:
http://interactivetoy.com/IATC1011/home/manuals/WiFli_AC-eng.pdf
So this guy looks like a nice hackable target for a flying robot
swarm! But wait it gets even better!
It looks like someone has already figured out part of the protocol and
made a Python script to control it from a laptop:
http://myrhev.net/?page_id=256
Anyway, I thought some of you might find it interesting. I think some
of Ed Katz's students were working with small helicopters.
-James Nugen
Dave Curtis
-dave
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Michael Brindle
-Michael Brindle
Edward Katz
Valley campus headed by Professor Pei Zhang.
You can read about it here: http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/research/sensor-fly/
p.s. There is a new project (so new it has no name that I know of
yet) using a Parrot quadcopter together with an additional circuit
board containing GPS, etc. allowing for autonomous flight. The
interesting thing here is that this new autonomous flight circuit
board will be available on Sparkfun in the future. Stay tuned for
further news.
On Dec 3, 8:10 pm, James Nugen <jnu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I was browsing a Radio Shack tonight and came across this Wi-Fi
> controlled helicopter on sale:http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12237802&filter...
>
> When I got home I did some web searching and found it even cheaper at Target:http://www.target.com/p/Wi-Fi-Helicopter/-/A-13547877#?ref=tgt_adv_XS...
Dave Curtis
On Dec 4, 2011, at 2:25 PM, Michael Brindle wrote:
> IMUs aren't that heavy.
Well, yes but.... you may not have much payload capacity to spare. Ask Tony about his blimp experience....
-dave
red24dog
even has online store to purchase spare parts-likely eventually
necessary! Electrically works "Out of box" easily establishing and
adhoc link w/my iPhone 3GS. Now learning to be a pilot without losing
it into the sky or neighbor's yard.
Wud be great to add the lightest weight GPS available (like
http://www.aeroquadstore.com/AeroQuad_GPS_s/28.htm) for tracking and
map plotting on a iPad or PC.
Ross.
On Dec 3, 11:10 pm, James Nugen <jnu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I was browsing a Radio Shack tonight and came across this Wi-Fi
> controlled helicopter on sale:http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12237802&filter...
>
> When I got home I did some web searching and found it even cheaper at Target:http://www.target.com/p/Wi-Fi-Helicopter/-/A-13547877#?ref=tgt_adv_XS...
James Nugen
I'm trying to put together a web page with all the information, but
here's a short version:
The Wi-Fli has two PCBs. One is a tiny router board using a Ralink
RT5350 802.11n Wi-Fi Router-on-a-chip, 16 Mbyte RAM, and 2Mbyte serial
flash ROM. I did a port scan and found two ports open. One at 2000
which is the control port as figured out by 'Myrhev', and the other
was port 23 (aka Telnet). As it turns out, the engineers for the
Wi-Fli were kind enough to print the username and password on the PCB
silkscreen. Not that it would have been very hard to guess! They are
both "admin". Once I logged in, it turned out to be running a very
stripped down version of Linux. The only custom program I found is
something called 'ethtty'. It's only ~12K and seems to be a simple
TCP/IP to serial bridge. It opens TCP port 2000 and a serial port on
'/dev/ttyS1'. I'm guessing it doesn't do much other than pass data
back and forth.
The other board is the helicopter controller. I haven't dug it out of
the helicopter yet, but there must be a micro-controller on it that
communicates with the router board over the serial port. Which makes
a lot of sense because you probably don't really want to try doing the
low level control from Linux!
There appears to be some limited possibilities for expansion. There
are a fair number of pads on the router board. Some are labeled, such
as possibly the console serial port and maybe a USB port (U+, U-).
If you would like to see the router board, I have uploaded a couple of
photos here (you can zoom in for some more detail):
https://picasaweb.google.com/106200802358329275559/WiFli
-James Nugen