Circuit needed to connect a car with PC

[sisso]

I am making a robotic car with wired remote. Please tell me what are the things needed to connect this to serial port of PC. I need to write output at serial port from an application running on PC and accordingly want to move the bot. I need to give only 4 commands that are Right,Left,Forward,Backward. I have searched on net many hrs. and find this circuit I need clarification will this work. **broken link removed**

 

[4pyros]

That may be the hardware but you are going to need the software.

 

[Reloadron]

The card you linked to is just a 4 channel (4 relay) RS232 card. A Google of "RS232 Relay Card" will bring up hist on many like it, including 8 channel cards. This is an example of another card. Additionally most kits like this include basic software and software samples to communicate with the card to get you started.

Ron

 

[sisso]

I am attaching the list of available components from my lab. Please tell me what board, chips(Atmega etc.) could be needed for connecting the bot to serial port. Please tell me only the major things needed not the basic one(not wires,soldering iron etc.).

**broken link removed**

 

[sisso]

That may be the hardware but you are going to need the software.

No @4pyros now I need info. about hardware, software will be next thing.

 

[cr0sh]

The easiest and quickest way would probably be to use the Arduino (item #2 in that spreadsheet on page 1); but that is only part of the hardware.

Unless the PC is going to be mounted on the car (and in that case, unless you are using something like a BeagleBoard, you're going to need a larger chassis - which can change things dramatically depending on the size), you would need some form of wireless communications from the PC to the Arduino; there are plenty of wireless solutions - a popular method is pair of xbee transceivers (one is hooked to the PC via serial, the other to the Arduino via either hardware or software serial).

You haven't said anything about the "car"? Is this car pre-built? If you've never built a robot chassis from the ground up, I would recommend going with something pre-built, or at least a kit. If you wanted to do it the "super simple" way, get a cheap hobby R/C car (something that uses real servos), then set up the Arduino with the Servo library to control them. If you are planning on building your own chassis, though, you will need motors, something to control the motors (motor controllers, h-bridge, etc) - plus you may need a servo or something similar for steering (unless you are going to use differential steering).

Actually - we need to take a step back here - answer these questions first:

1. Are you building or buying the chassis?
2. Will it have differential (skid) steering or Ackerman (car) steering?
3. How many motors do you envision it using?
4. Will the PC be mounted to the chassis, or will it be remotely connected (via wireless).

Regardless of the answers to the above - sticking with the Arduino will get you running the quickest, IMHO.