Wifi Controlled Car with Central Hub

• Car and Edison Hub
• Bottom View of Car
• Top View - Inside of Car
• Lateral View of Car
• Through the Window
• Top view of Edison

Inspiration

HackIllinois is the perfect place to experiment with the latest and greatest, especially regarding IoT. With this in mind, we took an Intel Edison, two Arduino Spark Cores, an Arduino Uno, and a Raspberry Pi and set up a more-than-proof-of-concept IoT ecosystem.

What it does

Our web page (link) hosted by a Raspberry Pi provides communication with both Spark Cores via the Particle Cloud/API service that make their devices so popular and easy to use. Each core is connected via Serial RX and TX to the Uno and Edison respectively. These commands cause the car to move and controls its lights, while the Edison keeps track of everything happening.

How we Built It

With four 5V DC hobby motors, an Adafruit motor controller shield, copious amounts of wire, hot glue, solder, and scraps of cardboard / recyclables.

Challenges we Ran Into

Connecting Spark Cores to networks that require username authentication is not possible. Luckily, a mac-address-registration workaround eventually surfaced (previously we had relied on mobile-hotspot). Stripping/cutting wires and working with the materials available without tools required creativity (try tightening PCB screw terminals without a small flat head screwdriver!).

Learning to work with the Edison was slow-paced at times, thankfully online resources were great. If anything, we would have liked to push the limits of the Edison more. Functioning as an Arduino, it is harder for the Edison to listen for Serial data at 9600 baud rate than one would expect. Fortunately, there are a few library workarounds.

Accomplishments that we're Proud Of

Plug-n-Play style finished product. Set the car on the floor, turn it on with a switch on the side, and start controlling it. No extra steps required!

What we Learned

Plenty, it's hard to believe it was all within 36 hours. Our product is emblematic of the time we spent working on it--whether controlling the Edison via SSH/Serial, working together on a singular web page using GitHub, and creating/soldering circuits. We leave HackIllinois with much more experience in IoT, hardware and software.

What's next for Wifi Controlled Car with Central Hub

More devices interfaced through Intel Edison. We are eager to use an Intel Edison IoT template after the competition.

Built With

• arduino
• raspberry-pi
• intel-edison
• html5
• javascript
• css
• azure
• particle
• speaker
• lcd
• motors