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WiFi controlled RC Car

A Wi-Fi controlled remote control car with camera

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This is a Wi-Fi controlled remote control car with camera that can be driven over the internet. The RC car is very unique since it's using a wireless router and eliminate the need of an external micro-controller such as Arduino.

As shown in block diagram, everything is controlled by a wireless router, the webcam is connected to the wireless router via USB port that allows live streaming video, the motor controller board is connected directly to the router via GPIO in order to control the motors without the use of a microcontroller.


  • 1 × OpenWrt compatible router such as GL.iNet 6416. All other wireless routers supporting OpenWrt should work fine provided there is enough space in flash,
  • 1 × USB Video Class (UVC) compatible webcams Those USB webcams that are UVC compliant should work for this project.
  • 1 × 4 x 3.7V Rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries Built-in Protected Circuit
  • 1 × Arduino Compatible DIY Motor Smart Robot Car Chassis Kit 2 WD
  • 1 × L298N Motor Driver Controller Board

View all 9 components

  • 1
    Step 1

    Wireless Router

    I chose the GL.iNet 6416A for this project because it is an extremely small wireless router (dimension: 58*58*22mm), the 5 GPIOs & serial port are all easily accessible via though holes or headers.

    All other wireless routers supporting OpenWrt should work fine provided there is enough space in flash, you can find a list of supported router models on OpenWrt's website.

    Most of the wireless router may not have enough GPIO to control the motors, however, you can use other pin on the router such as the LED pin, this require to unload the leds_gpio module or this way to control LED manually.

  • 2
    Step 2

    Webcam

    I do already have a Microsoft HD-5000 webcam, it’s capable of capturing video up to 1280x720 pixels. The auto-focus was really getting annoying and I do not want autofocus in a car, so I must disable this feature.

    Those USB webcams that are UVC compliant should work for this project.

  • 3
    Step 3

    Motor Controller Board

    A motor may require significantly more current than the wireless router can provide, it may damage your router if you control the motor without a H-bridge. Hence the L298N Motor Driver Controller Board Module is used in this project in order to control the direction & speed of two DC motors.

    I found out that there is about 1.5V voltage drop between the input voltage and the L298’s motor outputs.

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Artinus wrote 05/29/2018 at 02:43 point

Hi, this is Artinus from GL.iNet. We would like to ask for your permission to share this article & photos on our blog and social media channels. We will state the source and insert a link back to this page. Please us know if you're cool with it. Thanks a lot! 

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