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Why no wifi / bluetooth?

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 12:42 pm
by alexsee75
First of all, great work!

We built a stereo robot with two Raspberry PI Zeros ( https://youtu.be/LQIWNinJUbc ) in 2017 as part of our ToyCollect project. We also built one with the original Compute Module + evaluation board ( https://youtu.be/42ktb2GoaL4 - good example why you shouldn't use magnetic field sensors for a head movement based remote control) in the same year, so your module finally allows us to run both robots with the Compute Module which is far more convenient than synchronizing two RPi Zero Wifi video streams. Also the RPi zero is too slow for locally executing deep learning models whereas the CM 3+ is far more useful at least for small models. We've collected training data for deep learning obstacle avoidance and are currently writing a paper after which we should _really_ update the website ( https://tc.seewald.at )

However why didn't you include wifi and/or bluetooth? This would have made it a perfect replacement for the RPi Zero with an only slightly larger footprint.

Best,
Alex

Re: Why no wifi / bluetooth?

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 12:49 pm
by Realizator
Hi Alex,
It is a popular question. The main idea is that there are no any universal onboard solution. Some makers need hi-power WiFi modules, another - low-power tiny adapters. Is is impossible to do something universal. For example, with the built-in Raspberry's WiFi you can do perfect experiments over 5-7 meters, but no longer. We use Alfa AWUS036NEH to fly over 2 Km (with WiFi broadcast solution) for real-time HD video transmission.
That's why we just keep 3 USB, so you can use module you need.