Telemetry Module with Xbee 900HP

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Thomas Daede.

A telemetry system is a vital part of a solar car its not just something to monitor the car on the road, but if executed properly, can also be a valuable debugging tool. In fact, one of the first boards we made was the telemetry module, which allows us to see every single packet on our CAN bus. With clever software, our telemetry also does double duty as a wireless always-on CAN analyzer.

The biggest improvement we made this year was replacing our radios with Xbee Pro ultra-long-range radios, donated by Digi. These radios have up to a 15 mile range, yet can support 200kbps at short ranges. Weve never had a wireless dropout so far, even with carbon fiber and steel elements in the way.