Vehicle Commander Project Thread

[jamesde1123]

okay gotcha. looks like it will work. now what about battery life of the vehicle since you will have the wifi router on all the time to receive the signal i dont know how much juice it takes to run that but it seems like it could run the battery down quick... and sorry for the questions im just interested lol.

I did some calculations, at full transmit power it would drain the battery in 11 days. This really isnt a problem when the truck is driven daily, but when it sits it could be. I may put in a wifi disable switch or a solar panel. probably a disable switch as it sits in storage alot.

 

[MountainMike]

I did some calculations, at full transmit power it would drain the battery in 11 days. This really isnt a problem when the truck is driven daily, but when it sits it could be. I may put in a wifi disable switch or a solar panel. probably a disable switch as it sits in storage alot.

Something as simple as a hidden toggle.

 

[That Baker Guy]

yeah the switch would be pretty easy. a solar panel would be pretty boss too but it would have to look good.

 

[jamesde1123]

yea getting it to look good would be the most difficult part, the best way I can think of would be to build it into a fiberglass tonneau cover

 

[That Baker Guy]

yeah if you could counter sink it into the fiberglass somehow it would look legit.

 

[mp3deviant721]

Any updates on this project? I've seen lots of cool things done with Arduino but never something like this.

 

[jamesde1123]

Progress has been pretty slow lately.

I did get the RFID chip implanted and it is healing pretty well. my nerdy roomate did it.

One of the biggest hurdles will be interfacing the Arduino with the wireless router. I ordered a router and it took almost 4 weeks to get here (postal service doesnt like west point) and when i finally got it i found out the hardware revision isnt compatible with the open source firmware I want to use with it. SO I had to order a new router, this time with the firmware already loaded.

Tonight I will be playing around with getting the rfid and temperature sensors to function properly and deciding whether i want to make a dedicated app for a cell phone or just a web applet so it can be run off anything with a web browser and the correct connection settings/password.

 

[jamesde1123]

I blocked out RFID tag so people cant access my car, but you can see that swiping my hand in front of the reader causes a prompt in the serial monitor

 

[jamesde1123]

I drew up a schematic on paint, made some progress on the programming code, and have ordered a bunch of the stuff I need. I'm hoping to have my truck ignition and locks running on RFID by christmas. The wireless part will take awhile though. Also, I decided that i will enclose the microcontroller undeneath the radio since its just an empty slot there. the router will be mounter in the glove box and the antenna is a 7db one that will be mounted opposite of the radio antenna.

here is the schematic.

 

[jamesdem1123]

Update

I got the control box almost done. i just need to connect the pins on the board to the connectors and then it will be ready for install. below are some pics of the board and box. enjoy.

 

[MountainMike]

An update, awesome!

 

[3.0ranger1227]

Hey on the solar panel think if you could get one the same size as a sunroof you could sink it into the roof. that would be real clean

 

[That Baker Guy]

sweet update

 

[02RangerXLT]

Where did you get that little plastic box? Could use one for my switches...

 

[Kalwren]

How about an update on this project?

This is very, very cool.