7/12/2013

RC Surfer controlled by Android and Arduino

Motor control and telemetry data added to RC Surfer


I just added some controls to my RC Surfer project. I can now control the power of the dc motor by a slider on my Android phone for the full scale (that's analogWrite() 0 to 255 on my Arduino). This is done by the "ENA"-Pin (enable bridge A on the L298 motor driver IC) and using PWM on the Arduino.
Remote control app with data transmitting and receiving
I also have a "Start" and "Stop" button for any "emergency" case. Later I will add the functionality to stop the engine if the bluetooth connection will be interrupted.

I also added some telemetry data coming from the RC model. For now it's the voltage of the rechargeable battery pack and the temperature of the motor driver IC.

I did some first tests outdoors and had a range of a about 40 meters (~130 foot) with my bluetooth connection. Curently I'm using the Itead Bluetooth Shield V2.2 from IteadStudio. The range might be more than enough for later tests. There is still the option to exchange the HC-05 module with a XBee but I would then loose the option to control everything with my Android smartphone. For the moment the connection is sufficently reliable.

Of course the speed and direction will later be controlled by sensors of the smartphone.The slider is just for early tests.

1 comment:

  1. Hi very nice android app, can I have the source code? can I Modified it? I have a problem with my RC BLuetooth Project I want to control the DC Motor Speed but I really don't know how to make code both Arduino and Android app. like yours but if you share your source code of this maybe I can solve it. I'm using Servo for Left and Right control but only the speed did not control. if possible well you please send to my gmail account? here is my gmail junti20@gmail.com thanks for advance.

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