RaspiWebCar

A toy car controlled by raspberry pi through web browser

Setup Raspberry Pi

1. Install Raspbian OS

• Download Raspbian image from Link
• Format Micro-SD card using DiskGenius
• Use Win32DiskImager to write OS image on Micro-SD

2. Setup raspbian mirror and execute system update

• Find Raspbian mirrors from this Link
• Edit "apt-get update" source: sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list Comment all lines and add below two lines
  • deb http://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/raspbian/raspbian/ jessie main non-free contrib
  • deb-src http://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/raspbian/raspbian/ jessie main non-free contrib
• Edit "apt-get upgrade" source, sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list Comment all lines and add below line
  • deb http://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ jessie main ui
• Update system using commands: sudo apt-get update, sudo apt-get upgrade

3. Setup samba share

• Install samba: sudo apt-get install samba samba-common-bin
• Edit samba configure: sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
  • Find the entries for workgroup and wins support, and set them up as follows

    workgroup = your_workgroup_name
    wins support = yes
  

  • Add below section at the end of conf file

    [pihome]
      comment= Pi Home
      path=/home/pi
      browseable=Yes
      writeable=Yes
      only guest=no
      create mask=0777
      directory mask=0777
      public=no
  

• Set samba password: sudo smbpasswd -a pi
• See this artical for more details
• Some useful samba commands

    sudo /etc/init.d/samba start
    sudo /etc/init.d/samba stop
    sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart
    testparm
  

4. Install python Flask web framework

• sudo apt-get install python3-flask

5. Assembly raspberry car

• Parts list

  • Raspberry Pi 2 x 1
  • L298N x1
  • DC motor x 4
  • 5V battery (Power PI)
  • 12V battery (Power motors)

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6. Control program

• Frontend: HTML + JQuery/Ajax + Hammer (touch screen library)
• Backend: Flask web server
• Car Control: Python RPi.GPIO library

7. Connect raspberry car with android smart phone through WIFI

• To play with it outdoor where there is no router available, need to use WIFI Direct mode.
  • The easiest way is to use the "hot spot" functionality of smart phone
  • Disable normal wifi and data network, then enable WIFI hot spot (setting SSID and password in the first time).
  • Connect raspberry car with this hot spot as usual (setting a static IP address in Raspbian if neccessary).
  • One additional benefit of this way is, we can use phone to manage wifi connection status.

8. Start program and control car

• Install SSH client JuiceSSH on android phone and login raspberry car.
• Start program use command: "python webcar.py"
• Open browser to connect to Flask server with specified IP address "http://192.168.43.24:3000/"
• If success, a control pannel will be displayed in a web page. Use finger to touch on this area to control car moving.

9. Demo video

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