Using the 5GHz Intel wireless card, the S.A.R.T was unable to host a 5GHz ad-hoc network due to Intel’s international regulations. I had an idea to create a “computer briefcase” for the control panel, with a 5GHz wireless router inside. This wireless router could be connected directly to the control panel computer via an ethernet cable and then connected to the S.A.R.T via a 5GHz wireless network. To do this, we needed a powerful wireless router.

Introducing the Xirrus XR-600

The IT support team at St Francis Xavier College were kind enough to give us a Xirrus XR-600 Wireless Access Point for use in our control panel. These are the same access points used around the school.

Introducing the Acer TravelMate 8571 Series

The TravelMate is the computer in our control console briefcase. There’s nothing particularly special about it, and we’ll need to buy a new battery for it eventually, but it was a good starting point for our S.A.R.T Command/Control Interface.

Introducing the BreezeLite SN3-X5-4GB

The BreezeLite is the best candidate for the mainboard for the S.A.R.T robot. It lives up to its “Pocket Size Power” motto and only requires 5 volts/2.5 amps. It features a Intel Atom X-5 Processor (2MB Cache and up to 1.84GHz) with 4GB DDR-3 RAM, making it orders of magnitude more powerful than the Raspberry Pi we used last year.

Aaron has spent a number of hours learning all he can about the access point and setting up a network to connect the robot to while I work on setting up streaming and the S.A.R.T interface on the NUCs and the BreezeLite.