Introduction: Control Your Arduino Camera Robot From Your PC

An Arduino based Robot controlled from a PC with visual basic and a Bluetooth adapter.

Step 1: Layout

I have made this robot based on the popular DD1-1 tracked platform. You can bay it cheap on Ebay, or AliExpress.

On the board I put a simple IP Camera (model SRICAM IP001) and an Arduino Uno clone from Sainsmart.

Step 2: Power

The chassis is cut from two pieces of thin transparent Plexiglas.

For the main power I use a Lead-Acid 8volt/3.2 Ah battery . It is heavier than a Ni-Cd battery, but it’s a lot cheaper.
I also add a 1.6A glass fuse because the IP Camera is an energy hog. The battery charger is a simple 300mA pack but you can use a 10.8Volt power supply with current limitation.

I give 5Volt to the camera with a step-down LM2596 power supply module. In my original design I try to use a 7805 regulator, but the battery drain very quickly.

Step 3: Software

For the communication I wrote a program in visual studio so you need the .NET 4.0 Framework to work with it.

For the controls on the receiver there is a HC-06 and on the transmitter a cheap Bluetooth dongle (it works flawless on windows 7) .

I am monitoring the voltage with a simple divider made with two 10k resistors. The ends are in + and – and the middle connection goes to analog input A0.

You can download the code for the Arduino and the .exe program here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51764059/pardu...

Update 1:

You can download the visual studio code, here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51764059/Pardu...

(many thanks to tiktakx project) and unzip it.

If you don't know how to edit the code first download visual studio express (free version) from microsoft.

then after install it, go Open-->Project--> Parduino.sln. Open the form in the solution explorer and double click on each element you want to see the code.

Every time you press a key the bluetooth sends a character to arduino. F(Forward), B (Back), L(left), R(Right), S(Stop), G(Forward Left), I(Forward Right), H(Back Left), J(Back Right).

I will also post the code and an application for android phones in the next few days.

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