@Rich welcome to our headache good luck

@elfege

Lithium (either LiON or LiPO are higher energy density than NiMH, meaning they will last longer while providing higher power output for the same size battery, and are lighter weight as well. They have better power falloff behavior as well in that they will continue delivering almost full voltage until shortly before they run out, and then fall off quickly, while NiMH will steadily decrease voltage over time (NiCad where even better for falloff, but hardly last, and are an environmental disaster so you don't seem them used much anymore).

On the other hand, NiMH are safer. You can overcharge them and they won't catch fire. Lithium of either type need a smart charger to make sure they don't over-heat, and LiPO you need to charge before they are completely dead or they stop taking a charge.

Any of them will last for thousands or charges, or about one to two years regardless of number of charges. NimH will start to lose power after they are charged and will lose about 10% per day until they start to hold at about 50% if you don't use them. LiON will hold a charge for weeks to months without losing anything. I don't know how LiPO perform in that area.

Anyone feel free to correct me if I mis-stated or under-stated any of this.

Alan

@pitcom, thanks... I think.

Still having problems getting the little blighter to connect to wifi let alone anything else!.. Everything I try says it can't connect. Tried 3 different wifi connections and still nothing. Checked all settings, nothing... Just googling for more info on it since I'm about to throw in the towel again, take a break from it, watch a bit of Spartacus then try again.

Edit: Scrub that, I'm connected!.. Stupid thing. Changed it to connect to an open portable hotspot on my phone, connects. Changed it back to my home network, everything as it was before, connects... Now, on with the fun!

Hi @Rich, I'm using two LI-ion 1600 mAH cell phone batteries connected in parallel for a total capacity of 3200 mAH. A standard 5 vdc cell phone charger can be used to charge the twin cells since the charge/discharge protection circuit is built into each cell phone battery.

Now on to your WiFi binding issue. I assume that the first steps when you connected your WiFi module to the TTL/USB were accomplished and that you received the IP address that your Router should have assigned to the WiFi MAC address of your WiFi board and were then saved . Let me know if you got this far.

@robot-doc that's the bit I struggled with... I can't figure out why since it is working fine now after basically re-entering the settings for the 3rd time! But it's connected, that's the main part. (I expect I had a setting wrong somewhere however I checked them all over and over again... Who knows, who cares, it's sorted now)

I haven't tried anything further yet. I need a break from it again before it sends me around the bend!.. Will replace the bluetooth module on the EZB later and try connecting etc.

Here are a couple of shots of my WiFi board menu of parameters. I got these by just putting in the basic IP address that my Asus Router assigned during the startup procedure.

One more important bit of info..... The WiFi board MUST be flashing its LED (Top right of the board) opposite the antenna connector. This indicates the board has established a connection to your WiFi router. It can only do this when the Auto Mode box is checked.

Yeah I'm that far now.

You have DHCP enabled? Personally, unless your router reserves the IP for the MAC address I'd change that to static... in fact, all of my IPs are static but then I forward a lot of traffic to specific PCs. It just makes it easier should it disconnect/reset and be assigned a different IP.

If only I knew where you lived I could use your wifi now

But mine look much like that. Which is great.

I'll be doing a write up and photos etc. when I have finished... I also found my problem, darn security type was wrong so it was not connecting. I must have earned thousands with connecting and setting up WiFi networks and I make a rookie mistake like that.

I'll be hitting this one hard over the weekend and trying it out on testbot so hopefully (wishfully) we will see an end to the slow wifi issues etc. soon. But first, the penultimate episode of Spartacus is calling me (and so is the coffee in the kitchen)!