Hi,
My brain has been hard at work since I found my
Botvac 85's USB port the other day, plus found the NeatoControl program.
Very fascinated by the technology of it since day one, and finally seeing the LIDAR map in NeatoControl is awesome. But of course I can't clean the house with a USB cable stuck in it.
So I had the idea to wireless it. After several days of programming my Arduino and Xbee and realizing the complexity of the USB standard, I've been trawling this forum.
Lots of good posts here, but all Neato wireless mod threads seems to either end without a conclusion, or contain completely reprogrammed Linux distros in dead links. I'm a programmer, but not a Linux guy, I don't want to go that route on my own. I can solder wires, but my electronic skills stop there.
What I've tried so far that doesn't seem to work:
- Xbee Explorer USB + OTG/USB host cable in the middle: Doesn't work, because USB 'slave' in both ends
- Arduino MEGA 2560 + Xbee Wifi shield + OTG/USB Host cable in the middle. Doesn't work, same reason as above, and/or because Arduino doesn't really implement USB, just Windows driver does.
What I've read in here:
- Different tiny USB wifi dongles. Needs custom ROM/Linux provided through dead links. I also can't believe they can work because of the USB host/slave problem. Unless they have USB host, and really why should they? To plug in USB 3g modem -> wifi ?
- Arduino Nano + USB host shield - sounds great, but how can you get to WIFI?
- Arduino Mega or Uno + USB host shield + xbee wifi shield - could work, but big, and I'm betting both shields need pins 0-3?
- Spark Core - ships in May!? Doesn't have USB host?
- BeagleBone, Raspberry Pi - has USB host but no Wifi? And again, I'm not a linux guy. Plus, expensive and big.
If either solution above should prove to work, I still can't vacuum, because you can't close the filter with a USB plugged in.
Can we get to the serial port before the USB conversion, and will that mean we can talk to it directly with Arduino or something else? Which baud rate? What about power for my device? Any plans, or is stuff printed on the mainboard?
Can someone report something that actually works? Where did you connect everything?