Posted by on September 14, 2012

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am going to attempt to drive my Rovio wireless robot camera into (or at least near to) a lava lake. Specifically, I want to drive Rovio to the edge of the volcanic crater atop Volcan Villarrica in Chile to get a look at the lava lake churning below.

Setting up the Rovio is not straightforward, and I wanted to be able to use it in the field. That means, no internet connection, and no router. Funnily enough, I found it easiest to set this up on Linux, the one OS for which no installation instructions are included.

Ad-Hoc Connection on Linux

An Ad-Hoc connection means direct from Rovio to your computer, no middle man. No internet connection, no router necessary. I did this on Ubuntu, but it should be fairly similar on most Linux distributions.

Step One: Connect to Rovio’s Network
Click on your wireless connections icon in the menu, and connect to the network “ROVIO_WOWWEE”. I you don’t see this network, make sure that your Rovio is powered up and turned on. The blue lights on Rovio should be illuminated. If you still don’t see this network, try restoring your Rovio to factory settings (page 55 in the Rovio user manual).

Step Two: Edit Rovio’s Network Connection
Now that you’re connected to ROVIO_WOWWEE, click on your wireless connections icon again and this time select “Edit Connections…”

In the Network Connections dialog, select the Wireless tab, select ROVIO_WOWWEE, and click “Edit”.

In the Wireless tab, make sure of the following:

  • “Connect Automatically” is checked
  • The mode is set to “Ad-hoc”
  • Everything else should be set to automatic, default, or left blank.

In the IPv4 Settings tab, set the following:

  • Set Method to Manual
  • Under Addresses, set the IP address to 192.168.10.5
  • Under Addresses, set the Netmask or Subnet mask to 255.255.255.0

Now, click Save.

Congratulations! Your Rovio should now be accessible!

Step Three: Access Rovio’s Interface
Open up the web browser of your choosing and type in Rovio’s default IP address of 192.168.10.18. You should now see Rovio’s interface and be able to talk to Rovio and give him commands. Note that, since you’ve set up a direct, Ad-hoc Rovio to computer connection, you will only be able to access Rovio when your computer is connection to ROVIO_WOWWEE. You will not be able to access Rovio through the internet or from another computer, like you can with a non Ad-Hoc connection.

Posted in: How-to

Comments

  1. Cody Manahan
    August 27, 2016

    Jason Mesaros says you should use drones to fly over and up close where the Rovio can not go.

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