Raspberry Pi just came out with the B+ model which has 4 usb ports with 5volt power same processor... windows is also trying to get in the market but doesn't seem to understand the difference and it's $299 vs the $35 Pi.

You are correct that I don't understand the EZ system, do I need to have the PC running the whole time for the robot to work or does it program the robot and then let the robot do it's thing autonomously? Like if for some reason I turned off the app... I am planning on building a robot that could say go as far, as the batteries allowed, away from me and possibly collect information.... I noticed the quad and I know wifi only reaches so far but radio controlled devices let it go much further... I will have to post a Quadcopter I am building which is capable of autonomous return flight when either power is low or radio signal vanishes.

Thanks for everyone's help by the way. I tend to ask a billion questions so I hope no one gets too annoyed with me. I'm not very talkative in person. Unless you ask me about my projects then I tend to list them off and talk about what they do and how I did them until you shut me up. Ha ha.

the ARC software has to be running somewhere. there are many options but the main thing is that a computer must be connected via a ip network to the ez-b. because the internet is an ip based network, the computer could be anywhere with an internet connection as long as the path from the computer to the ez-b isnt being blocked by a firewall.

another option is to use an iphone or android if you have published the app to ez cloud.

it is best to think of the ez-b as a gateway for your computer to have access to all of the devices attached to the ez-b. this makes the ez-b far more powerful than anything else available. it removes a lot of limitations that other architectures have.

btw, this was typed on a tablet running linux. see, we do like linux on the forum.

you could use a directional antenna and get quite a long way with wifi. businesses often use wifi to connect offices that are inline of sight over miles. it all becomes about the curvature of the earth and elevation necessary to get line of sight. the wave length of wifi is so short that your antenna would be small and portable.

from the looks of it, it might of not been a great idea for me to have purchased a beaglebone to run the brain. =(

Since the PC is the "brain", stash your beaglebone to use as an adjunct support interface widget in the future applications not yet identified.

....AWESOME IDEA!

was hoping to use beaglebone as credit card sized brain.

the benefit are immense, since it can be used as a standalone computer with hdmi output to screen, support for keyboard and mouse. Best thing for autonomous tasks without restricted range and excessive weight.

im sad =(

i actually got two beaglebones and several rc trucks for locomotion, along with hgates and 4g cellular internet to host a server on beaglebone and connect to main brain for uploading cached data

scratch that last part, looks like ill be coding from beagle after all.