A couple of years ago we heard about Racer, an analog take on arcade racing games: instead of just controlling a virtual car, the game had you control an R/C car using the traditional arcade setup. Blair Kelly has an updated take on that concept, which he calls the Arduino WiFly Mini.
Using an Arduino UNO, a WiFly Shield, a GoPro Hero 2, a three-axis accelerometer and lots of other bits and bobs that do important stuff, Kelly was able to turn a Tamiya Mini M05 R/C car into an analog arcade racer. The toy car connects to its base station via Wi-Fi, allowing it to be controlled wirelessly via a variety of controllers (including a steering wheel) and in return send a live first-person – first-toy car? – view as well as force feedback. He can even set it so that the camera pans in sync with the steering.
Want to know how to make your own Arduino WiFly Mini? You’re in luck: Kelly has a staggeringly comprehensive how-to on his website that is longer than the entire Harry Potter series. It was a compelling read. I couldn’t put it down. I like the part where Kelly realized he should be putting a series of instructions into one packet instead of sending packets with each instruction so the method more greatly resembles a PPM stream.
[via Make:]
