Someone16

I haven't decided yet what wireless connection I am going to use to connect car to laptop.

I have a lot of options but every option have some advantages and disadvantages.


a) using old HP laptop - good options, i can connect webcam, additional hardware without a problem. Cons: battery has bad autonomy (about 20 minutes), weight, WLAN connection (as far as I know PCMCIA connector doesn't work, so I need to buy USB WLAN module
New battery is at least 100€ and USB WLAN module is 40€.

b) using RFM10 wireless transceiver - i have 2 transceivers at home but they are in SMD and they can be connected to microcontroller only by SPI interface which is really hard to write a firmware code for

c) using XBee - great range, a lot of resources for it but a little higher price (20€ a piece and I need two of them)

I'll probably use XBee modules but they are just too expensive. My goal is to build a car controlled by laptop for under 100€. Cost of these modules is a real set back for this project.