One thing to check on your old wireless router is whither or not it will act as
a client wireless device or only as an access point. I think newer ones will let
you do either. If it will act as a client device then you could connect it to a
laptop computer and put both on a robot.

Other projects have added a serial port to wireless routers and modified the
Linux code inside the device. So if you are real ambitious then you may be able
to connect to the router directly from your Basic Stamp.

Brynn, do you know which wireless module can be purchased for $30? That sounds a
lot easier for connecting to a microcontroller than using a full wireless
router. I have seen wireless modules that have a serial interface, but they were
quite expensive.

--
Jeff Sampson
http://tcrobots.org/members/jsamp.htm

On 2/25/2011 5:10 AM, berryfarm@... wrote:
> Hey Brynn,
>
> Thanks for the lead. Really liked the star wars theme.
>
> Bob
> ---- Brynn Rogers<brynn@...> wrote:
>> If you read the description here, each of these robots has a wireless
>> router with which to communicate with.
>>
>> http://www.towergeeks.org/video/swarmmoviev1-1
>>
>> There is a wifi board available for the tower system now, so people do
>> not have to resort to using a router.
>>
>> The problem is these days you can get a wifi router for $20 or so, and a
>> Wifi module still runs $30 or so - and the module might only handle
>> 'B', maybe 'G', while the cheap router certainly handles at least 'G',
>> and maybe 'N' speeds.
>> Of course your embedded system needs ethernet to be able to use the
>> router, and the modules are usually just serial (often RS232 and/or
>> SPI). Plus, the modules ought to be lower power, maybe much lower power.
>>
>> Brynn
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2/24/2011 12:49 PM, berryfarm@... wrote:
>>> We put in a new wireless router which in turn freed up the old one. So now
I'm drooling over how I might put the old one on a robot.
>>>
>>> Has anyone done this before?
>>>
>>> Bob Hassett