Driving a Car with an iPhone (Part 2 - How To) Waterloo Labs Episode 03

[simron67]

These guys are about to be millionaires...Mark my words.

[retaj09]

can you control the car wirelessly with toys remote control instead of wireless network? if so how far ur signals can reach before it losses connection with remote controler 

[happyhappy2happy]

wickedly awesome , great feckin job!

[pielikesmymouth]

all i can say is..... i want one

[tubechao999]

Hey, does the electric systems in a car control gas and steering also?

[eddie1214]

FIRST ROBOTICS ftw!!

[shodanxx]

why use an iphone, a laptop, labview (yuck, are you kidding ?? labview is a toy !),some wifi and etc..  when you could just use the xbox controller that is way more ergonomic, cheaper and more accurate than the iphone control ?

also no points for using off the shelf controllers for driving the motors instead of arduinos

also you can use a drive-by-wire butterfly valve for gas instead of a window motor servo, it's already got sensors and is way more responsive

[sanok5555]

yep, as jcorsaro said, signal is kind of important here. Better not use the iPhone 4 ;)

[adliikhwan280]

lol i thought of remote controlling our car with a watch that is modified to a remote controller

[mhsmathew]

I tried on my car and it worked but I kept the doors

[johncolombianito]

and all of this was done why??

[youngkid1021]

that girl is HOT. AWeSOME project

[psp10004]

im gonna use my iphone to start my moped its gonna be so cool

[OwnedMuchVideoz]

Driving with that on 100 MPH and battery runs out of iphone.. =D

[femtophysiker]

i just need a USB DAQ!

[MrZendejas]

i what one how much

[KRUMPCLOWNB]

awman! thats awesome! you guys are the next bill gates!

[HUGEnarutofreak]

woot for the 4 sec clip of FRC!

[ferx2001]

Its pretty cool, my 4 year old kid built something like that last week. I can control a 747 with my iphone so ur little toy is kinda cool.

[eddiehem96]

u stupid shit id like to see you do this

[thenerfergeek325]

i think its is hot but not the car

[gdub4719]

Um, yeah.... those aren't crescent wrenches welded onto the window motors for the gas/brake pedal. Those are known as non-adjustable open end wrenches. Cresent wrenches are adjustable. Darn college educated engineers! =D

[jezse915]

I think is good, the quality of the camera used is good, it be better if you made it more interesting, with more facts or explaining how you did all that shit cus it looks very complicated... nice job!!!

[andydufresdne]

The worst mechanics I've never seen...

[foxk56]

instead of sliders for brake and gas, should have used forward and backward tilt of the iphone. Anything tilted forward of vertical applies progressive throttle, anything tilted back ward from vertical applies progressive brakes. Completely vertical would be the car idling and/or coasting.

[iDakotai]

Yeah but what if he lost balance why ontop of the  car? If it would have tilted back any slight degree. It could either: Send him flying off because of the breaks, or a crash course ahead. lol

The sliders would allow a small decrease in break, or acceleration, or even a large one.

[foxk56]

@iDakotai hmm, i never considered that. Good point!

[krisraps]

Thats A Car ?

It looks Soo fake

IOt Looks More Like San Andreas Tahoma !!

You Guys Are Soo GAY if You Think Thats real becuz Its Soo Fake That Its Gay

[bboyXFlave]

hey nice style of typing ... yeah.. IT IS GAY.. dude thist is real fun.. so dont hate :) HATA'

[krisraps]

That Is Like Joke ;D

I Actualy Know All That !

That is Real car But I Thinked That Would Be Coiol If I Start To ACT Like Im Some HATER :D Or idiot!

[sulli112392]

wow ur a complete moron, its an oldsmobile.

just because u live in the 21st century doesnt mean there werent cars in the 20th.

[digimonfan81]

hey guysn something just hit my head

what about the gear

unless it's automatic

[benpant]

Here in the UK we have the NHS or Socialist system as you derogatorily call it in the USA. Therefore I can have fun without worrying about bills. Owned.

[glock21guy]

Your disclaimer at the end isn't quite right for the times - Actually you probably will be paying my medical bills!

[ginngang]

@glock21guy - If you're smart enough to read and understand the disclaimer, should be smart enough to know better. Only a jerk would expect them to pay your bills if you're stupid enough to try this stunt alone.

[glock21guy]

@ginngang - If you're smart enough to know what's going on in the country, you should be smart enough to know better. Everyone will be paying for everyone else's medical bills. :P

[Excelsoft]

not that complicated, but still, so awesome!!

I didnt get it on how to control gear system?

[jpabluz]

@Excelsoft mmm it has automatic transmission?

[Excelsoft]

thanks for reply, yeah, may be, but how can they change from D to P for example, I think this part is missing, or do they do it manually?

[therandomawsome]

So there is a app for everything, literally.

[eproductions2008]

Wow, this is pretty shnazzy. It'd be even better if it were controlled by a ps3 or xbox controller. Instant gta. lol

[achordian]

Are you affiliated with a specific FIRST team?

(I see you cut down most of the FPGA code, removing the system watchdog and moving the digital module to slot 2. Glad to know it's not an *exact* copy of the FRC robot control system)

[WaterlooLabs]

@achordian We actually work for National Instruments, who provides part of the FIRST kits as well as support. We decided to build the code from the ground up so people without the FIRST codebase could play along too.

[JRoque250]

Looks like you had a lot of fun doing this. Congrats. To me the trick is to have a lot of fun and make something useful at the same time. Any National parts harmed in the process?

[jcorsaro]

Pretty cool project, what does it do when it looses signal or power, or if the tube connecting to the potentiometer breaks? Also needs a little bit better welding, those tack welds with a flux core mig welder won't hold up so well.

[WaterlooLabs]

@jcorsaro If it looses wireless signal there is a network watchdog that slams on the brakes.

With regard to my welding...its been a couple years :-). But there's not a lot of torque on these wrenches, its definitely strong enough for what we needed.

[rumidom]

an arduino same relays and a rf module could do the same =p

[boelkw]

awesome, i thought that looked like a cim/gearbox and speed controller from first haha. no breaker between battery and distro board?

why not use a rotary encoder instead of the optical encoder?

[WaterlooLabs]

Because the optical encoder cost $7 in parts

[KC9RXB]

@WaterlooLabs So you spend $1000's of dollars in equipment to control the car but going out of your way to spend $33 more dollars on a rotary encoder would be outrageous right?

[mathman47]

Nice going guys, but personally I would have worn a lot more protective equipment, but then I'm 62 years old! Sort of Rube Goldberg with interface after interface don't you think?  But that's how it always starts out. Good job. I really enjoyed it.

[JGuysmiley]

Do I need to use a Dryfit battery?

[WaterlooLabs]

No, any 12 volt battery will do, we just used the giant one so we wouldn't have to charge it much.

[iDoDew]

Why not just use the car battery? That would get recharged from the alternator. If you wanted a separate battery for safety, you could have picked up a battery isolator. The one for that car probably runs about $80 and would let you charge two batteries of the same size at once. The car runs off one, and the other runs your gear.