France
Asked — Edited

Long Range Connection

Hello I wanted to know if there is a way to establish a long range connection between the B-EZ controller and computer, a range superior to wifi.

thx.


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#1  

I believe xBee is longer range. Beyond that things get expensive ie, WiFi/4G mobile hotspot on your bot from one of the cellular providers could give you access over the internet, but has a monthly cost - also need to find one that supports port forwarding so you can tunnel through it to the bot unless you also have a PC on board running one of the remote control applications that can publish their location from behind firewalls.

Alan

#2  

There are also Ham radios that can do serial over USB, and then on EZB you use a USB TTL adapter to replace the BT adapter, and do the same setup on the PC side:

http://christophhartel.com/usb-to-ttl-converter-for-icom-amateur-radios-with-ci-v-interface/

Alan

#3  

You can use some of the Xbee modules like THIS Xbee, they can operate up to one mile.

#4  

I am using an Air Cable RX3 Blue Tooth extender. Doubles range for me.

United Kingdom
#5  

Alternately, and I don't know if it's as popular over there as it is here but some ISPs use a second wifi radio in routers to broadcast a public network. BT OpenZone is one over here. Great coverage where I live, I can use wifi on my phone almost anywhere.

So, add a netbook to the robot, have it connect to the EZB any way you like (BT, USB etc.) and then use the netbook's wifi to connect to these open wifi connections. Set up the server options and port forwarding, connect to the ARC instance on the netbook via the internet and voila, almost unlimited range.

Canada
#6  

Im thinking about using an onboard pc directly connected to the EZ-B using usb along with a good cell phone internet stick that will connect allmost any where but it will cost alot about 75$ a month for me where i live

#7  

I will wish to avoid using a system with 3g subscription. Xbee seems to be a good idea. Have you ever tried with the EZB controller ?

#8  

I know @jim milan is using xBee in his Project Armadeus https://synthiam.com/Community/Questions/1908&page=3

While searching for threads talking about xBee, I also found a reference to Synapse, which apparently has 3 mile range. https://solarbotics.com/product/51750/

Alan