another update on the car

We are really only waiting on 1 part to come in the mail, our other motor controller.
Once we have that, it will take about 30 seconds to install it and get the remote control going. I was having a problem
the other day with my ubuntu laptop. After trying to install some stuff to get skype to work, I rebooted and my wifi
stopped working. I did everything I could think of and finally found a forum post that helped. It turned out that by
going to system->administration->hardware drivers, I had to enable the wifi driver. Once I did, it worked great. I rebooted
again and had the same problem, but this time the driver was enabled. I disabled it and it worked. I am now working on
getting the cameras to work. I am using ZoneMinder for linux. Its designed to be used as a home security thing, and
it can support multiple cameras. But most importantly, it can be accessed from the web and can record. It can even detect
motion and only record then, which is cool. So the way we are setting this up, we should need only a browser to control
then entire car. Just connect with hamachi and then access the page with controls and the monitor page. I also managed
to get a spare linksys wrt54g router going on only batteries. This will be how we control the car if there is no
wifi. Just fire up the router and connect to it and control it on a local network. I have been wanting to get some
relays for the arduino so i can turn stuff on and off like the router. I also got a bit more hardware done, including the
charging port. I noticed that on the back of the car was a little fake nozzle for gas. So I found a male and female
12v cigarette lighter connecter and installed it. Its pretty awesome, now you just open the little gas thing
and plug in the charger. I found a nice piece of pvc that I can use to make the rocket launcher. I plan on using
vex to build a holder for it and a gear assembly. Then we can pick what angle to launch the rocket from and put it at
0 degrees for storage. We might even be able to get a sensor on there that tells you what angle you are at or at least
when you have hit a certain angle. I also came up with a design to mount the camera with. Basically its just a
long piece of pvc with the camera at the top. Then just underneath it is the usb hub with the bluetooth and wifi dongles.
If I can find a pigtail, then I can also put the antennas from the linksys router up there for better connection.
That whole thing rotates. In the end, we will have 2 cameras. The first is the logitech that is for the main driver.
The second is the built in camera on the latop that will be looking at a multimeter monitoring battery and anything
else we want. I also still need to get some sort of tread for the tires. This thing is really close to done now.
We are planning on debuting it at bandcamp during a night practice. In which case it will need lights...