I had plans to add a phidget such as the 8/8/8 interface kit to my Trex 600 Nirto Pro helicopter. UNTIL! I found it phidgets could not be made wireless. I was going to add all the servos to the interface board and have the helicopter WiFi. Controlled by a programm i would of made using C#.NET. I think alot of people would benefit from a wireless phidget interface kit or a moduel to plug into the USB on the current 8/8/8 interface kits. The price dosent matter. if people want to buy wireless phidget, then let them. Your the one who stands to profit. I have 2 questions.

1) Have you plans to build a wireless device

2) can you add your own servos and motors to the 8/8/8 interface board. Or do they have to be purchased from this site.

Thanks

What kind or wireless interface are you looking for? WiFi? Bluetooth? something else?

As nice as wireless would be, we focus exclusively, at least for now, on USB devices, and for now there still isn't a good way to do USB wirelessly.

-Patrick

I need a wirless interface which will strech a good distance. So WiFi would be the best option in this case. I know you focus on USB devices but do you need funding for wireless products.

You're best bet is to find a small single board computer that supports wifi and USB host - probably running linux or windows CE (such as the ebox), and plug the phidgets into that, then use the phidget webservice to control then over the network.

-Patrick

I dont think im going to get a computer running on my small helicopter do you? (no offence). Just looks like i will have to wait until your bring out a wireless device.

I would have a ton of uses for phidgets if I could have wireless access to them. I think Wi-Fi would be the best. I am interested in doing home automation and most people have a Wi-Fi router. My applications would be to control the blinds or a deadbolt on the door. Bluetooth would also be interesting for door access. Currently my computer unlocks when I get within range. It would be cool to do that to unlock my front door.

alright, i think i have found the perfect solution!! Wireless usb dongles http://www.cablesunlimited.com/products ... code=I4098 i just sent an email to the company asking what voltage is needed, but it is a first step, Good luck, i'll repost if i find out any more info...

Hi everyone,

I am also very interested in a wireless phidget interface kit version. That'd be a blast, extending possibilities by far. Hope to see one soon...

@shocku992: Any updates on the wireless usb dongles? They sound truely promising. Have you found out on the required voltage? Since I'd use it on battery power consumption would also be interesting.

Regards,
Steff

Im still very new to phidgets but what about this..

Since most cellphones come with a mini usb on them, they can connect to wifi, and there is a library for windows mobile.. What about using the phidgets web service on your cellphone, connect it to you wifi network, and then mount your cellphone on to what ever your project is.. Then you can use another computer thats connected to your network to control the devices through the cellphone.. Would that work?

If it would work, then the skys the limit.. Instead of connecting your cellphone to your wifi router, you could connect it to the internet over the 3G network and just find the ip address and could effectivly have unlimited range(within the 3G network)..

Wow, this is an old thread

There are several different options right now for what you want to do. For example, the Phidget SBC, our own single board computer solves many of the problems people have, wanting to use phidgets wirelessly. If you just wanted to use a cellphone by itself, that's a little more difficult. The phone needs to be able to act as a USB host for another device. I don't think there are any cell phones out there that do that yet. However, it's actually not that difficult to plug a standard cell phone into the SBC and use it as a modem to stream data. Of course, wifi is also really easy to do with the SBC too. It all depends on the range you need.

The only issue you're going to have with running through wifi, or 3G is latency. You likely wouldn't be able to control an RC helicopter in real-time, but if you're creative enough with programming, you could possibly have the helicopter fly itself. It's sort of a goal to have the RC helicopters and airplanes littering the office around here, actually fly themselves.

We have started working on some wireless adapters for phidgets, but don't get too excited about seeing them on shelves any time soon. They're still VERY early in development.

So the SBC comes with a usb wifi adapter.. Im guessing you just use the ethernet connection and ssh into the SBC and set up the wifi adapter for your network and then run everything else from remote?

You set up the wireless initially via the web interface (over a wired connection), and thereafter it will stay connected automatically.

-Patrick

It's perhaps worth clarifying for someone who hasn't used the SBC that the configuration via a wired ethernet interface need only be done once. From then on, if you set it up to do so, the SBC will automatically connect to the wireless network when it boots up.

For an R/C model thought needs to be given to what happens if the model goes out of range - while it will reconnect to the network when it comes back into range there will obviously be some outage! I believe you can get high gain directional antennas to greatly improve the range.

Regards, Pete

Yeah, it would just keep going.. Normally you would use a failsafe but that doesnt apply to this method.. I guess a high gain antenna is a must for sure..

The range of wireless-n is excellent and given that its all line of site, it should work fine with a normal wireless-n network as long as your driving area is in range..

In the SBC case, you would be best off writing a small application in C or Java that runs on the SBC and can shut things down when it falls off the network, or interpret remote commands when it doesn't.

-Patrick