Wixel & Trex

Hi & thanks for providing such promising and advanced products.
However I have read a bit about them but not actually tested them yet, hence this post.
My project involves amongst other things, a PC controlling a Trex equipped Robot, wirelessly through Two Wixels, while the Trex will also be controlled occasionally by the user’s RC.
Most importantly I expect the PC to be able to control the Trex within Milliseconds through this system, directing it as required via the Wixel’s link, without any delay, digitally by 0s and 1s.

  1. Being theoretically ok do you believe this is also “practically” ok without any technical hickups?
  2. There will also be a 2.4GHZ Cam transmitting to the PC’s USB. Would this and the Wixel get to interfere with each other?
  3. Which Wixel App do you believe I should be using for that sort of link?
  4. And finally, Would the Wixel link work over a 100m distance out in the open?
    Thanks in advance. Your reply would surely save me days of readings.

Number four is not going to work, the Wixel does not have that sort of range. You might, on a good day, get 75ft or so.

Thanks Martan. Hopefully Pololu will attend to clarify the remaining ones.

Hello.

I have numbered my responses to your questions below:

  1. Radio packets sent from the Wixel can take on the order of a millisecond to transmit, so expecting communication in the millisecond range with the TReX through a pair of Wixels does not seem unreasonable. However, every radio packet has a chance of being lost so there is no guaranteed latency. For example, getting a 100ms lag every couple minutes is probably pretty normal, and we cannot guarantee that won’t happen.

  2. The Wixel does broadcast in the 2.4 GHz band, but you can specify one of 256 different radio channels to operate on which might help avoid interference from your camera.

  3. You might consider using our wireless serial app.

  4. Like Martan already mentioned, 100m is likely too far for the Wixel to communicate. As he describes in this post, you could probably expect to get about a 50 foot range (and even less if the Wixel is moving).

-Jon