Wifi Tank - 2013
This small rover allows you to become a sci-fi scientist exploring the undiscovered under your bed... or in the kitchen? Anywhere, where there is a Wi-Fi signal.
The attached IP camera is streaming video and sound to your computer and, although it doesn't move fast, it can ride over small obstacles like door thresholds, cables, and carpets... One can explore the entire floor, but spying on someone is not an option. It's quite loud and, well... noticeable!
Wifi Tank can be controlled from any common web browser on a computer or a mobile phone. Controls are, however, optimized for a keyboard, so using a mobile phone and its touchscreen can be quite flimsy.
Wifi Tank is constructed from a Foscam FI8918W IP Camera with custom firmware, an old radio-controlled tank and its control board, a logic board with Attiny2313, a power board, a Li-Pol battery, and a low battery voltage monitor.
Everything is wired together approximately like in the image below:
Disassembled Wifi Tank:
Wifi Tank with its hood off. Not much free space is left inside:
Making custom firmware for an IP Camera and using it to control a small toy tank was definitely quite a unique use of the camera, and surprisingly, it was not that difficult or time-consuming to build. The project has even managed to end up in second place in the finals of the Czech electrotechnical contest, where I presented it.
If you want to look at my custom version of firmware in the Foscam FI8918W IP Camera, you can do so here.
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