So far all of Sawppy tests have been performed as a client of a nearby wireless network. But we won't always have a network to connect to. Sawppy may venture where we don't have access privileges to a nearby network or possibly go places where there is no network at all.

This problem was encountered before on the SGVHAK rover project. The Raspberry Pi 3 on SGVHAK rover were modified to become its own wireless network access point by following directions posted on Raspberry Foundation website. The downside of Pi configured to be its own network is that we lose the ability to connect to the internet. This is probably a problem that can be solved by diving deeper into Linux networking configuration but there was also the problem of limited power of Raspberry Pi's on-board wireless hardware.

As an experiment to reduce configuration headaches and to increase wireless power range, a TP-Link TL-WR802N mini router was added to the rover chassis. Now Sawppy the Rover has its own wireless network, giving us the following advantages:

  • We can use Raspberry Pi in its default configuration - no need to reconfigure Raspbian networking stack.
  • A wireless router is already designed to work to establish both (1) a standalone wireless network and simultaneously (2) have the ability to connect to an external wired network. Plug in an Ethernet cable and Sawppy is on the internet, no reconfiguration required.
  • A wireless router is already set up to be secure. TP-Link may or may not have covered all the bases, but it is expected to be more secure than a Raspberry Pi configured by a Linux networking amateur.
  • A dedicated wireless router has a more powerful wireless antenna.
  • Additional modules can be added to Sawppy and communicate over local wireless network. For example, adding a commodity wireless IP camera.

The mini router is mounted to a stand bolted above the rear right corner. This location was chosen because that's where real Mars rover Curiosity's UHF communications antenna is mounted. Power for this little router comes from a micro-USB cable, so we could power it with another unit of the same power converter used to power the Raspberry Pi.

Mini router

The TL-WR802N is a nice compact solution that avoided having to mess with Raspbian (Linux) networking and, more importantly, the risk of doing it wrong. It was also more powerful than a Raspberry Pi's on board wireless networking, but sadly not by as much as originally hoped.

Sometime in the future Sawppy will get a more powerful router for greater range, hopefully a dual-band unit to access the less crowded 5 GHz WiFi band. With more power and 5 GHz ability, Sawppy should have a better chance of tolerating noisy RF environments like SCaLE exhibit floor.