Controlling arduino robot through WiFi using Blynk app

1

Hello guys,

Firstly I would like to say that I am a total beginner when it comes to electronics or even Arduino.
I am creating a robot which needs to be wirelessly controlled.

This is still on the concept phase but I am having quite some trouble to think about the hardware side of the project.

I need to run 6 dc motors, 4 for horizontal motion and 2 for vertical motion. I chose a Rotoshield board (from snootlab) to control the horizontal motion ones and a L298N dual driver to control the vertical ones. Due to the amounts of pins this requires the arduino MEGA board is the one I choose as well.

I have already looked at this and seems a reasonable connection, now my problem comes with the communication with the robot.

I just need to control the motors (can it be done with the blynk app), no need for other complex components.

Would the Blynk app and a ESP8266 board do the trick?? I am concerned about the pins that board uses in the arduino although with the MEGA should be fine. Since I am already thinking of using the Rotoshield, the addition of another WiFi shield seems not possible.

About the code, I am still learning how to code but seems quite straight forward, I hope!!

As I said I am a total beginner to this field but will like to learn more,

hope you guys could help.

2

The Rotoshield leaves the Tx/Rx pins from the Arduino open so I see no reason why it can’t be attached. An ESP-01 will do the trick just fine. They usually come along with AT firmwarm so it’s a matter of attaching Rx/Tx and power and you are good to go.

3

I was thinking on those ports, but I saw many tutorials on internet and they were connecting the different wifi shields or boards to PWM pins…

Regarding the app, can it control the 6 motors? or is it too much inputs??

4

6 inputs can be handled fine. I control my Lego trains with Blynk App and with a local server built it’s realtime. Because the footprint is so small it can handle a lot of traffic.

5

Alright thanks a lot :slight_smile: for your help

6

Have you bought any Arduino products yet and tried it? I just ordered some stuff (the Unowith experimentation set, the motor set) but no ethernet, wifi or bluetooth shields. I’ll need to know this stuff too!

7

For Wifi connection only I can highly recommend the ESP-01. It has just two input/output pins, but it is so cheap. The only thing you need for a it is a separate powersupply, but you have that on your robot anyway, and a little capacitor. It’s also really small.