First, let me say that I am new. I don't know what I'm doing. If you want to critique my post, the reason for my post, the nature of my post or any negative comment in general...move on. I couldn't find this specific topic in the forum. I would appreciate anyone's help.
So, what I would like to do is control a scale car (ho scale 1:84, about 2" long rc car) over wifi. Kind of like an anki drive setup with a camera, if possible. I would like to use a PC or Mac as the hub and control multiple scale rc cars at one time. These rc scale cars would be able to navigate scale scene such as roads and street lights, etc. Is there a board/processor, etc that would allow me to do that?
For WiFi the ESP8266 is probably the way to go. They have both WiFi and a microprocessor all in one and they can be programmed using the Arduino IDE. There are different versions with different numbers of I/O pins. I have not used them myself.
As well as the ESP8266 you will need a motor driver board - perhaps something like a Pololu DRV8833 and (presumably) a small servo to control the steering.
Will all that, plus a battery, fit inside a HO scale car ? I doubt it.
Another alternative, is to use one of the Deltang devices. They include the wireless, the microprocessor and the motor driver in a VERY small board. They are programmed and ready to use, but they are not WiFi. I used some of them to put Battery Powered Radio Control in N-Gauge locomotives. I got some that I could program myself with the Arduino system - they use Atmega 328 chips - so I could control the trains with my PC.
And you can buy small and inexpensive RC cars - maybe you could use their mechanism. But, again it is not WiFi.
I am using nRF24L01+ transceivers to control 00 Gauge model trains. Those units are about the same size as the ESP8266 but don't include a microprocessor. But there is a great deal more space in an 00 Gauge locomotive.
And if you are not already competent at web-programming building a WiFi controlled system will probably be a challenge.
Yes. I don't have enough to prove it but I reckon the PC could control 12 or 15 out of a fleet of 50 or 60, the rest being dormant. I never had more than 3 myself (for cost reasons)
Those numbers are based on measuring the time for a round-trip wireless message. I've forgotten the number now, but about 10 millisecs I think. I reckoned on sending 5 messages to each loco per second. You might want to double that for a car which has more scope for movement and that would reduce the number you could control. But then they probably could not be doing anything too energetic with a PC controlling them.
