We have an autonomous vehicle controller that allows you to input a track and have the vehicle follow it.
We were going to use a Mega with a bluetooth ttl device and an SD card for communicating and logging, but after looking at the specs of the MoteMega, it looks like I can save a lot of assembly hassle and get one device to do it all. Currently we have a prototype shield on test for sketch uploading and logging and it works well. We were already looking at utilising 915MHz transceivers for 'return to base' and 'here I am' functions.
What I am unsure of is how to communicate from my laptop (and more importantly, from customers laptops) to the Mote.
Do I have to set up another Moteino as a gateway, or could I use a 915MHz usb/serial/ttl device?
As it stands now, I can distribute a hex file update and my customers can run a batch/shell script that connects to bluetooth, uploads the new sketch and restarts, with little computer knowledge - they just need to connect to the BT and the script takes it from there, prompting them for the file, etc.
Is it likely I can achieve the same level of user hands off with this, or am I going to have to deal with getting users installing python, knowing what their virtual port numbers are, etc.? (in which case, it's a no-go. )
I am happy to do app packaging (my previous life...) and development, but having to get customers delving into software isn't going to work - we have a lot of elderly modellers (heck, our main developer is 80 next year
).