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Questions About New Roli

Hi,

I'm new here and I'm interested in purchasing the 2-armed Roli model.

1) What is the estimated Roli run time w/ the supplied 7.4VDC 1300mAh battery?


I want to use Roli as a means to check up on my pets while I'm work.

2) Can Roli & camera be remotely operated via Smartphone or Remote PC?

I appreciate any insights. :)


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#1  
You could RDP or use something like gotomypc to connect to your computer at your house, which would be controlling your robots. Both robots can be controlled by the same computer.

As for run time, it would depend on how much time you spent running the robot around the house. I dont know how much room is available inside the robot (based on the size, I would say that there is a lot) but additional batteries could be put in serial which would allow you to have more run time if needed. The community would be very willing to help you with that.

I have a robot that has far more going on than the stock Roli as far as motors and Sensors. I will be using 4 of these batteries to give it about 7 hours of runtime, but I also will be using the motors a lot. Additionally, there are a lot of higher mah batteries available on the internet. These would be equal to about 5 or 6 of the default batteries in runtime.
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Synthiam
#2  
Roli and all Revolution robots are Wi-Fi, which means you can control them from anywhere in the world over the internet. Once your robot is connected to your home network, it is available to be controlled from anywhere.
#3  
well, there ya go:) Thanks DJ. The machine would just need to be outside the firewall or there would need to be a whole in your home firewall to allow access to the machine running the robots. Do I understand that correctly DJ?
#4  
or, I guess that you could put the robot ip's outside of the firewall and go to town that way.
#5  
The camera and V4 board pull about 200mA alone...It will also depends how much driving you do ... Also realize the more mA you draw the power drain accelerates disproportionately... Meaning with a 1300mAh battery @ 200mA draw you might get 4 hours, but increase the load to say 500mA, you theoretically should get almost 3 hours, but you'd be lucky to get over an hour... I have a similar robot set up the way you want.. Between camera and driving around here and there I get about 5hr on a 3000mAh nimh battery...And yes to question 2....
#6  
@d.cochran.... That's the way I understand it ...So correct you need a hole in the firewall.... port forwarding
#7  
yep, that is the way that I would see it working. I guess that if your ISP allowed you to have 2 IP's you would be able to forward one to one robots IP address and the other to another robots IP address. I personally would go with the RDP/GoToMyPC route to connect to a computer that is on your network controlling these robots, but there would be many options to get this accomplished.
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Synthiam
#8  
yes, you will need to forward the two ports (TCP 23 and TCP 24). Or, you can set the IP of the EZ-B v4 to DMZ.

All routers have the Port Forward ability, and DMZ settings. They are very easy to use:)

We looked into having a Cloud service for controlling the robot, but the latency between servers and your home is too high for realtime control
#9  
DJ.. Any chance you guys have plans to have this as a tutorial on how to do this?
United Kingdom
#10  
Doing "this" (port forwarding) will vary depending on router.

On my router it is as simple as adding in a couple of new lines in the port forwarding

User-inserted image

Note: This was a mock up, I haven't set it up which explains port 23 being forwarded twice

Then using a DDNS service or using your external IP address in the connection

User-inserted image
#11  
the issue is that you would have to make a tutorial for many types of routers. I would just put a document out (may already exist, I havent looked yet) that specifies which ports need to be forwarded. I personally feel much better at forwarding ports instead of using a DMZ or forwarding all ports for a specific IP, but that is just me.

An interesting question though. If you have two robots in your house as he mentioned, you wouldnt be able to forward the same port to two different ip's. Can you assign the ports that are used so that you could have say 23 and 24 to one bot and 26 and 27 to another bot?
#12  
I assumed that one port was for sending and one for receiving. I may be wrong. I haven't played with it yet.
#13  
yea, silly question. your router will let you pass one port that is assigned externally to a different port internally. So you could have port 26 and 27 for the second robot externally pass to port 23 and 24 internally on a separate IP address.
United Kingdom
#14  
That's my plan, eventually. I haven't actually set it up yet the above was just as an example of my router's port forwarding settings.

I've done similar on a few other things, mainly my IP cams which all use port 80 as default (I could change it in the camera but internally it's easier if they are port 80) but port forwarding forwards other ports to port 80 of that IP.

I presume the EZ-B would work similarly, at least the connection (replace the :23 for the port needed). I don't know what port 24 does, I would guess that it's for the camera feed but I may be wrong. I've not scanned my network with the EZ-B attached yet to see what ports are open and what is on each port.


P.S. Here is a useful website for port forwarding help for those who need it.
#15  
It's clear that EZ-ROBOT has a strong online community. I appreciate the rapid & comprehensive responses. Remote viewing/operation of Roli is a major product perk, not to mention the forum support.

Thank you all for the information!
#16  
@Copter, it really is a community. I haven't seen an question go unanswered yet. Welcome to the community.
#17  
Ok, trying to grasp this port forwarding concept.... I think I am getting there... So If I manage to successfully port forward or DMZ one of my ezb4 using tcp 23 and 24... I can then run a copy of ARC anywhere in the world... type in my 192.168.225... yada, yada ip address of my ezb4 into the connection control dialog box in ARC and that should connect me remotely to my ezb? Do I have this right?
United Kingdom
#18  
@Richard, Pretty much yes. You would need your external IP though, so 73.182.39.231 or something along those lines. I use a DDNS service on my LG NAS which basically allows me to use a url such as myusername.lgnas.com rather than my IP address, it makes it so much easier.

A lot of IP cams have DDNS services available too, or there are some paid for ones you can sign up to.

Not a requirement if you have a fixed IP but mine isn't. It doesn't change often but it does change.

So, to summarize;

1. Set your router to give a fixed IP to your EZ-B V4, i.e. 192.168.0.10
2. Forward ports 23 & 24 to the IP of your EZ-B V4 (methods will vary depending on router)
3. Check the port forwarding worked by visiting a website such as http://www.canyouseeme.org/
4. On a different PC outside of your LAN (or your mobile phone not connected to WiFi) pop in your external IP or DDNS URL in to the connection dialogue (don't forget the :23 after it)
5. Hit connect
6. Enjoy controlling your robot from anywhere in the world!
#19  
1) Done
2) Done (I think anyway) with dlink router not the SMC modem
3) Won't open my IP address (which when I type into my web browser brings up my SMC
modem login screen)

Question, I port forwarded my new router (dLink), but do I need to do something with my old router (SMC model) which I disabled the wifi on, but I am using the modem part of it? The (my) remote IP address that comes up in the link above is that of my old SMC router/modem... I get an error when trying to check if port 80 (tried 23 too) is open... "cannot see your service on port 80"
#20  
Ok, opened port 80 on my smc modem/router and not htat web site you gave me reports port 80 as open....
#21  
Ok, now I got port 23 open (confirmed on http://www.canyouseeme.org/).... should I still be able to connect to my EZB on my home network using my remote IP address (with : 23 at the end)? Because I can't... and I won't be able to try it on another network until my girlfriend gets home tonight where we can try it on her mobile phone network...
#22  
Richard, please tell me every device that you have connected from where your internet connection hits your house to your EZ-B. For example, for me it would be Cable Modem, Firewall running BSD, Switch, Wireless Access point and then EZ-B. This will help me to understand the network and be more able to help. It might just be modem and then EZ-B.

Thanks
#23  
Port forwarding wont prevent you from accessing your device on your local network. It will just allow you to access your device from outside your network. Inside your network, you would use your 192.168.x.x:23 address to connect to your device for fastest response. Outside your network you would use your public IP address:23 to connect to your device.

While it would be possible to connect to your external ip address:23 when connected to your internal network, it would make a couple more hops to find the device. It sounds like a routing table in the router got messed up. This can be cleared by rebooting the router/cable modem.

Also, it may be necessary to clear the cached routes on your computer. This would be done by going to a command prompt and typing (each is its own command with enter hit after each line)
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdns

If you are using a phone, I dont know how that device would release a renew its network connection other than a reboot of the network.
#24  
A video of this setup procedure would be incredible.
#25  
I will get it setup at my house and post a video as soon as I get my EZ-B order in. I have some time off coming up over the next 2 weeks and will have time to post a video. The way it has been described makes a lot of sense and it would work from a networking standpoint.

There are possible issues with internet service providers not allowing certain ports to be passed to through their network. This would be easy enough to get around by using other ports and then having your firewall port forward these other ports to 23 and 24. Some ISP's block certain ports to prevent you from running servers at your house.

When I get my EZ-B v4 in, I will make a video of how I set it up if nobody beats me to it.
#26  
@d.cochran That sounds great. I look forward to your video. Given the interest in this topic, sounds like your video will get plenty of views, particularly when the robots ship.
#27  
@d.cochran.... currently I have an SMC router/modem with the wifi disabled (because the wifi ON IT sucked).. I bought a new Dlink router for better wifi performance....

My problem I think lies with having 2 routers (even though the smc which is used just my modem now has the wifi disable so I may use the dlink as my wireless router)... I was able to open the port (23) on the SMC router/modem so that when I check here (http://www.canyouseeme.org/) it reports port 23 of my network is open... So far so good... But I use the dlink as my wireless router for my network and that's where I have my ebb4 connected to... The smc and dlink uses a separate IP address.... and my external IP address reflects the SMC router not my DLink router

Where do I go from here? I bet it would work if I went back to my old crappy wifi network on the SMC and removed the dlink....

My network

1) SMC modem with diabled wifi
2) Dlink wifi router on a different IP than the above
3) This pc I am typing on
4) My ezb4

I have other devices, but none are currently connected (other PCs)
#28  
The DLink probably also has a firewall in it. you would also have to port forward the same ports from the DLink firewall to the ip of the EZ-B.

Connect to the IP address of the DLink and see if there are any firewall settings in it. It probably is still using the same default username and password that came with the device but if not, you should know what these are.

Let me know. Thanks
#29  
@Richard R, Because you essentially have 2 networks, it is going to be a little bit complex.

IN the SMC router, you need to forward ports 23 and 24 to the WAN IP address of your DLINK router (this is the IP address that your SMC router assigned to it). Usually available in the WAN menu of the DLINK router. Should also be able to see it in the DHCP menu of the SMC router.

Then in the DLINK router, forward those ports to your EZ-B.

The connect to your public IP address from EZ B from outside your network.

You can get your current public address from http://www.whatismyip.com/ (connect to this from inside your network) or it should also be available within the settings menu of the SMC router.

d.cochran is correct, port forwarding should not have impacted your ability to access from inside the network. If you put the EZ-B in the DMZ of the router rather than port forwarding, it might block internal access depending on the firewall settings. Although if EZ-B is the only thing you are accessing from outside, DMZ can make some of this easier, I would avoid it until you learn more about networking. Dangerously opens your network.

Another much simpler option is to install Teamviewer (or any number of other remote control applications, but Teamview is free and easy) on the computer running ARC, and then use the Teamview client on another computer or phone ( has iPhone and Android versions) to control the ARC computer instead. TeamViewer does not require any port forwarding. It uses a helper on TeamViewers Servers to broker a connection through the routers. Also, that way you don't need to worry about your external IP address changing (any time the SMC is rebooted, this is likely unless you are paying for static IP) or dealing with a dynamic DNS provider.

Alan
#30  
Alan is correct. I mentioned this earlier and was my plan for achieving remote control outside of the house. I personally find it much easier to use a client that allows me to remote control a PC in the house but that might not always be the best solution.

Once you get into port forwarding, you have to understand your internal network structure and all of the points along the way that could block your traffic. Tracert is a utility that will show you the path that you are taking to the destination and the point at which you are stopped in trying to reach your destination. If the DLink has a firewall, you might be able to disable the firewall on it, but that could be a security concern for you, IDK. In any event, I am sure that we can figure it out.
Tracert command usage
#31  
@d.cochran @Alan.... Seriously thanks guys... I'll take another stab at it this afternoon...


Richard
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