
alexs
USA
Asked
— Edited
I can't seem to make out whether the WiFi board has a built in chargeable battery or if it has to be powered by a wall-plug DC power adapter. I plan on using it remote control my Roomba and clean my room, so it would have to be wireless.
As long as the overall current demand stays below 250 ma on the SCI power and ground pins.
There are so many ways to answer your question as there are many different ways of doing things depending on exactly what you want to do. The best I can do i try to paint a clear picture of the constants.
1. You have to supply power to the EZ-B for it to work.
2. The EZ-B has a wifi device in it.
3. The EZ-B has to be connected to the ARC software running on a computer, iphone or android device. This can happen via a direct wifi connection from the computer or other device to the EZ-B, or can happen via a network where the EZ-B has a connection to the network via Wifi and the device is also connected to the network via wifi or ethernet wire.
4. The EZ-B passes power to your other devices on the digital ports without limiting power in any way. For example, if you have a 12 volt battery connected to the EZ-B, it will pass 12 volts to anything that is using the power pins on the digital side of the EZ-B. If your device only runs off of 5 volts, this would release the magic smoke and the device would be rendered useless. This requires you to consider how you want to handle the power going to your other devices.
5. The ARC software running on the computer or other device is the brain of the robot. The EZ-B is the brain stem connecting all of the devices to the ARC software via the network.
6. The controlling device can be any device that runs Windows 7/8 if a computer. It can also be a device that runs IOS or Android. This would allow you to place a small computer,android or iphone on/in the robot and make it self contained.
7. The camera is passing through the EZ-B to the computer to be reported as a camera mounted to your computer. Just because ARC can display the camera image doesn't mean the the ARC software is connected to the EZ-B. The EZ-B will announce that there is a connection when one is made.
I hope this help clear some things up for you and how/why wifi is needed and built into the EZ-B V4.
Alan
For some reason I thought that the Power Shell in the pictures housed a battery. Now I realize that the controller just has a power connector and you can connect whatever power source you want to it whether it be AAs or a lithium ion battery they sell in the online store. I'll take a look at the Roomba with my multimeter and see if I can supply power to the controller from the Roomba, if not I will purchase a thin LiPo that can rest on top.
The reason it is listed as ezb v4 WiFi controller is because the v3 was a BlueTooth controller. While it doesnt control your wifi network, it is specifying that it connects to ARC via wifi. Again, based on the statement, I wanted to make sure you had all of the information necessary.
Good luck and Happy building.
Just wanted to mention to you that you can power your EZ-Bv4 from the Roomba battery, the SCI plug has power going to it so you can grab it from there. I have done this with my Roombas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMGqyFqM94c
By soldering a PS/2 connector to a servo wire and attaching it to one of the digital i/o pins.
How will I also power the Roomba via the SCI port? Will I need to run two wires from the PS/2 connector? One to the i/o pin and one to the power connector?
I agree with @thetechguru - a FAQ (or small wiki) would be great for all of us. It would help the n00bs that ask the same questions over and over (me), and ease the redundancy for the eternally patient members that answer - over, and over, and over and over...