Just a couple of things that could help others choose the right connections for their projects;

Which Wifi & Wired boards have you used/plan to use? Links? And why Wired Ethernet rather than USB?

Because of the distance ,i have them in a few rooms and i have network cable already there ,so to run to USB would be to hard plus problem with the length,with wired you dont have that problem.

ONLY using a WIFI BOARD ,but this has outputs called PHY for network RJ45.

I could use WIRED NETWORK to ttl adapter,but having both is much better and there are ways to use both. i got the WIFI board in and RJ45 JACK IN ,only now waiting on a small adapter board for RJ45 connector wifi board with phy

most WIFI boards dont have PHY (ETHERNET) I/O, then a speciail isolated transfomer is needed

USB is mostly for short runs,with WIRED NETWORK its long runs

The downside to going over network (wired or wifi) is the network integrity. If the network goes down for any reason you are without connection where as with USB you are always connected at the expense of having to have the control PC very much local to the EZB.

I completely agree with you on the ease of use with network points around a house.

Problem is that USB you need to buy a seperate computer for each board almost, every thing in my house in every room has network,a few have 1GIG LAN some have 10/100

I found i needed 1 GIG LAN for video server on my 3 large screen tv's with media server

I tried with 10/100 and video would miss or mess up.you need a special cable and GIG SWITCH

On other designs i use USB to TTL adapter board,do not like bluetooth at all,unless a certain robot i am making uses a special controller with bluetooth.

Bluetooth is great but wifi would definately solve a problem with "distance". @robotmaker I have saved most of your threads as they are very informative Rich (and others)are included in my saved threads

@robotmaker, For your application wired ethernet is probably more suited however thinking of other project ideas, and including your tanks and cages, you could easily use USB to connect 5 EZBs to one PC.

USB2 has a maximum length of 5M for Hi-Speed (480Mbps). If you wanted multiple EZB controlled kitchen appliances, USB could be used.

Most homes do not have wired ethernet installed in every room, for others (and that's what I'm getting at here) wired ethernet may not be the best option.

I'm not sure why you would need gigabit ethernet for media streaming, sure it helps if there are other processes going on in the background or multiple streams at the same time but otherwise 10/100 is fine - at least in my experience I had no problems with 10/100 and streaming HD movies while someone else listened to music or watched another movie, the only reason I upgraded my switches was because my internet was boosted to 120mbps and I wanted to get the most out of it. HD movies can be streamed over 54Mbps wifi without issues (although it's not recommended as if the speed drops you end up buffering). As for special cables, Cat5E has been the standard for years now which supports gigabit ethernet, I don't even know where you could buy normal Cat5 cable these days and as Cat5e is cheap there is no point to Cat5 now. Check every CAT5 cable you have and, unless they are very old, I'm sure you will see CAT5E or CAT6 written on them. But that's another story/issue entirely.

Bluetooth can be OK but is limited. Range is the main issue there. If the EZB came in a bluetooth and wifi variety I would pick wifi every time. But it doesn't and bluetooth covers where I need it to.

Wifi has it's problems but they are few. Range could be an issue if you have a very large area you wish to cover, but then you could simply extend it. The only other issue is wifi signals dropping. This is assuming the router is set up correctly otherwise there are a whole host of other issues to deal with but those are router issues not wifi issues.

For mobile applications with no onboard control computer the option of USB or Wired ethernet just aren't there.

But what about RF? That's one that's seldom mentioned. Have you looked in to that? Has anyone?

It's all food for thought and hopefully information for people to consider. If you, or anyone else can add to any of it feel free.

its fairly easy to wire homes for wired LAN,I did my very easy,may be in your area may be harder ON my streamming i found sometimes it loses signal and ethernet is fine CAT5 not really for 1 GIG lan where cat6 is,when i buy it ,it says its for 1GIG line SO when i added GIG lan i have no problems at all.my brother installs professional systems mostly TV and media streamers for the rich ,and he only uses CAT6 for same reason REASON this idea came up is not for my project ,but others wanted WIFI instead of bluetooth and for extra $9 in parts can easy add RJ45

ON ADDING USB its a lot harder to hide the wire,thats another big reason ,unless you have your EZB's connected close together aslo i have 54mbps on my WIFI and still does more of the problem as 10/100 ,my cable internet is 300 mbps and at 10/100 is loses signal sometimes or go very slowly,with 1 gig lan is really good i am thinking in UNITED KINGDOM may be its ok, i think it needs about 150mbps to have no problems at all

this idea may not be for everyone's application,but i putting it up there to so they can use it or not

I See WIFI posts come up alot on EZB forum

There are good points and bad points on each type of connection.bluetooth,wifi,lan and usb

CAT5E not CAT5. CAT5E is faster, can handle gigabit networking (1000mbps) just fine. I've noticed that a lot of the AV/networking specialists I deal with at work are starting to specify CAT7 cable... not that you can get much that'll need CAT7 but still, that's what rich people get for wanting to hire the expensive designers

I don't disagree, and when I moved in my house the first thing I did was installed the network cables for the LAN. But over here it's harder to retrofit a wired lan as houses were built from brick until only a few years ago, I believe a lot of houses over that side of the pond are timber framed which is much easier to retrofit.

It's those good and bad points I was trying to get brought up and expanded on.

Mine ii brick on the outside and drywall in the inside,so its pretty easy like most houses in usa

Some lines i check it cat5e if not all.since i did it just a little while back,but you need a GIG switch to go with it or you are just using 10/100 lan ,my internet is 300 gbps ,so 10/100 switch wont work, i got a GIG switch for video and network 10/100 router and switch ,and on the GIG line i do have a 1 GIG lan card

Yes, gigabit hardware is also required otherwise just 10/100. That's why I had to change my router, it was 10/100 and has 4 branches to 4 switches going through it so while my office could transfer 1000mbps with my nas my living room couldn't. Unfortunately, my router sucks as it has a built in modem and if the internet goes down my whole network fails... need to find a gigabit router capable of everything I need (ideally able to run tomato or the other firmware I can never remember the name of).

Anyway, we digress...

WiFi module... the main issue I see with this is the virtual com port. When you have yours running stable please please please post info on the virtual com port and how to set that up.

YES I WILL.i dont think i will have any problem since this one is for virtual com port software I could easy test it now since i have the board,but i will wait till my other part gets here in about a week.

another item others dont know about using WIFI ,if you have metal studs in your rooms.like most houses iin usa has,and brick on the outside,it wont pickup WIFI very good Bluetooth mostly for a very short range ,like in robot controllers,but same thing with metal studs and if in a room far away cant pick it put most house builders use metal studs with drywall its easy and fire safe,it does block WIRELESS CONNECTION

BUT doest meen every house has it

I gotta call you out on this one Robotmake. Most builders in the USA Do Not use metal studs in homes. Wood is the preferred building material for houses. Overwhelmingly. There are however a lot of homes with brick on the outside.

i thought most did,since mine has metal aluminium studs in the rooms ,its brick on the outside Reason i found out is i went to make one of the rooms bigger i had to remove the metal studs and replace some of them and to had ethernet cable in too,mostly was fairly easy So i think some homes might have it,its hard to tell unless you break the walls apart

I think the reason some homes use it ,is because of fire ,wood burns ,metal doesnt havent seen too many homes on the outside that uses wood

Your right. Some homes do have metal studs and the reason is as you said. Also it's stronger. Bigger buildings are mostly made out of metal though these days. Also reinforced concrete.

Concrete seems to kill any type of RC signal. I know I cant remote start my car if it's parked in a concrete parking garage.

I work out of a large concrete and steal building and my cell phone signal sucks when I'm inside.

I have stayed in a lot of large hotels that have Wifi throughout the large building that are built on metal structures. Mostly the signal was real good however they probably have boosters or repeaters throughout the building.

Not based in science or deep research or tests. These are just a few of my long term personal experiences.

Hotels use repeaters throughout the buildings generally, as do schools, colleges etc. and other large buildings which require a long range.

Concrete will greatly reduce any type of signal but not as bad as Cotswold stone does (and living close to the Cotswolds there's a lot of that round here which makes installing a wifi network for someone rather difficult).

Metal structures do hinder signals but a partitioned wall with metal studding isn't solid metal throughout the wall, the signal will still get around it. But it wont be metal studding on structural walls. Metal studding, at least this side of the pond is used mainly on budget builds where a lot of internal walls need erecting fast for little money, generally timber is used in most builds.

ON my moms house WIFI seems to be very good,on mine not so great on inside,and on the outside it is so strong i can get 2 miles only because i have 2 WATT amp plus a large antenna

I stayed in a lot of hotels since i travel a lot,and found out most hotls seem to be pretty good at libraries the signal is really bad,i found out burger king has a very good signal,and starbucks

Mostly why i dont like WIFI too much,internet is great ,and using a WIFI printer But for a monitor or video you need a very stable singnal

Good news my board came in so will be testing this week,also looking at making a autoswitch for WIFI and bluetooth,if WIFI is down it switches to bluetooth and when WIFI is up it switches back

I got my other WIFI board in from elechouse ,so will be able to test both boards

I see others are having trouble hooking up to TLG10UA03 ,I will find whyand best solution to fix it and post my data

Other good news since i will be in china and near Shen Zhen, China ,where the elechouse factory is,i can see if i need help from them

can't wait to see your results. WIFI is the only thing holding my from getting my rc robot finished