Tiny wi-fi robot

Well I didn't win anything in the contest 8( but I'll continue to work with this anyway. Good news is I figured out my programmer problem. Somehow I switched out my wall wart. The programmer didn't like 6v at 250mA but it's happy with 9v at 1A. So I can start with software development now. First I'll write a quick test of the motor control. Both motors on for 1 sec, then right only for .2 or so then left only for .2 then repeat. Then on to PWM then wifi control.

Gonna have to leave soon but I'll work on it tonight. Check back.

Just finished adding the drivers. When the driver inputs are jumpered HIGH both motors drive forward. Yaaa! When a ESP8266 is plugged in it drives forward. I assume GPIO 0 and 2 default to Pull up so they appear to be outputting HIGH.

Bad news is my programming carrier for the ESP8266 seems to have quit on me. The serial-usb I was using bit the dust so I replaced it but now I can't get anything but ESPCOMM_OPEN failed. ARRRRGGGG! Now I have to figure out what's wrong. I get readable output at the "magic" esp8266 bootup baud rate (76800) but when it goes to program or run mode I get gibberish at 115200. Not sure what is going on. As soon as this issue is solved I can start writing software but until then I'm stuck.

New pictures coming tomorrow.

As I mentioned earlier I threw this together in an evening. It's more of a proof of concept than anything. My first attempt was to use a coin cell battery for power but ESP8266's don't like 3.0 volts. I had to find another power source so I dug a battery out of one the minicopters I had. The ESP likes 3.7 Volts just fine. The combination of the small gear wheels and the high speed of the motors means it's very zippy. With the gpio lines as output I can use pwm to make it go whatever speed I want. The limited GPIO of the 01 modules means that there is no room for inputs. A better choice would be a 07 or 12 module. That could give you 9 GPIO which means you could 4 bits with a H-bridge on the motors to get full control of direction and you would still have 5 gpio plus an ADC for Inputs. As it is it can only go forward and turn left and right.

Once I finish the drivers I will have to start the software. Basic software could serve up a web page and use buttons with links to give the signals for output. Not sure what kind of lag I will encounter though. I could make it a telnet server and use single character codes to drive it left,right or forward. A enhancement to this would be to allow it to load up codes and then execute a sequence. It should be fun to play with.