5G FPV RC CAR

[exs4ever]

Hi Everyone. First of all: i'm not a programmer, so I'm totally ignorant about the following. My studies led me to believe it is possible to control an RC CAR over 5G. I could comfortably sit on my couch at home, and with a gamepad in my hand - connected to a PC - drive my RC CAR, equipped with a Raspberry Pi and Camera streaming back to my PC at home. Yes. ChatGTP told me the same, and yes, I saw here some people saying they made a project like that already.
As I stated at the beginning I'm not expert, so this time I decided to hire a small Company (Robotic one) so that they could help me out. I'm having interview with a lot of people, and everyone is telling me the same ChatGTP told me: it is technically doable but on paper could be impossible. Explaining: 5G promises 5ms Latency - or even lower - but in reality the user could experience some issues with the network and have the Latency going up.

So, MY QUESTION for you out there who tried this project already: 5G can be used to drive in real time your RC CAR anywhere you want while you are sitting at home?

[rpiMike]

Yes, it's possible, just the same as a 4G or 5G drone. Would need to stop or backtrack if signal is lost.

I've done this over wifi driving a robot around the garden.

[pidd]

Getting a real time camera back-channel will be a struggle and make navigation very interesting.

[emma1997]

Nearly impossible. Totally so for plane or multicopter.

On RCGroups site and others there have been more attempts to try this and WIFI too than you can count. AFAIK not a single success story of controlling a model this way due to the ridiculous latency. Let's not even mention reliability and dropouts.

Only way is with full on-board autopilot like MultiWII or Arducopter. Then only route change or system commands. Boat, plane, or car.

[ame]

So, MY QUESTION for you out there who tried this project already: 5G can be used to drive in real time your RC CAR anywhere you want while you are sitting at home?

Yes, but the latency and dropouts will make for an unsatisfactory experience.

Oh, and ignore ChatGPT.

[exs4ever]

Yes, it's possible, just the same as a 4G or 5G drone. Would need to stop or backtrack if signal is lost.

I've done this over wifi driving a robot around the garden.

wifi doesnt count. Ive been talking to people who bought the system made by RC Cloud, with 4g, is not working. Network delays.

[exs4ever]

Nearly impossible. Totally so for plane or multicopter.

On RCGroups site and others there have been more attempts to try this and WIFI too than you can count. AFAIK not a single success story of controlling a model this way due to the ridiculous latency. Let's not even mention reliability and dropouts.

Only way is with full on-board autopilot like MultiWII or Arducopter. Then only route change or system commands. Boat, plane, or car.

So Should i go back to the Radio system? What is my best option to drive remotely?

[exs4ever]

Nearly impossible. Totally so for plane or multicopter.

On RCGroups site and others there have been more attempts to try this and WIFI too than you can count. AFAIK not a single success story of controlling a model this way due to the ridiculous latency. Let's not even mention reliability and dropouts.

Only way is with full on-board autopilot like MultiWII or Arducopter. Then only route change or system commands. Boat, plane, or car.

So what about this guy? Fake? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sdFccUkg-w&t=17s

[Gavinmc42]

Just buy a long range FPV setup, it is plug and play for drones, planes and rovers theses days.

[pidd]

So what about this guy? Fake? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sdFccUkg-w&t=17s

Difficult to say but the video does have edits (6:45) and at 9:19 he was aware of the bike coming from behind and coincidentally glanced at another screen just as the bike appeared.

A bit weird that the audio is trash yet there are very few disturbances on the video feed, I wasn't looking for them but only noticed one..

This was supposedly on 4G

[ame]

Nearly impossible. Totally so for plane or multicopter.

On RCGroups site and others there have been more attempts to try this and WIFI too than you can count. AFAIK not a single success story of controlling a model this way due to the ridiculous latency. Let's not even mention reliability and dropouts.

Only way is with full on-board autopilot like MultiWII or Arducopter. Then only route change or system commands. Boat, plane, or car.

So Should i go back to the Radio system? What is my best option to drive remotely?

You should probably try it and report back. But think carefully about what you are doing and whether it could work, and how it would work. If you come to a point where you are handwaving away some problem, or just engaging in wishful thinking that something might work then stop.

Apparently, and I don't know if it's true or not, some people make stuff up on the internet, just to get clicks. The only solution is to demonstrate why something is not possible, or replicate it to show that it is.

[redvli]

Nearly impossible. Totally so for plane or multicopter.

On RCGroups site and others there have been more attempts to try this and WIFI too than you can count. AFAIK not a single success story of controlling a model this way due to the ridiculous latency. Let's not even mention reliability and dropouts.

Only way is with full on-board autopilot like MultiWII or Arducopter. Then only route change or system commands. Boat, plane, or car.

So Should i go back to the Radio system? What is my best option to drive remotely?

5 years ago I modified/exended a bike with 2 motors (1 linear for steering). Max speed about 7 km/hour. It is quite rural where I live, no proper cabled internet at that time. Solution was 2x 4G, 1 on the bike and a FixedWirelessAccess solution via 4G at home. Same mobile ISP. But clearly high latency (3 seconds at best). I knew that, did not really put a lot of effort in it to reduce. Instead I learned myself how to handle it. I could drive around the house. Also I did once test drive on public road although almost never real cars/tractors/bikes. It was not really fun, mainly because it is simply illegal to have an unmanned object far away from home. Nowadays national law is only 150 meters away or so for consumer drones, I don't know latest.
So I kept it around the house, new goal was to monitor my goats and the house when I was away. But already the first night they started to demolish it, chewing on a micro USB connector, pulling it, and so on. I still have it, but the controlling Pi3B is still on Buster, not used for long time.

5G has low latency, but you need to have control of its traffic classes and QoS etc. Just public internet over 5G will be best effort or so, at least not the lowest possible according to spec. Your ISP might simply wipe/reset any QoS bits in IP packets. Only maybe honor for VoIP, I know 1 mobile operator did, another not. Is 2 years ago, might be different now.
Once you would have the correct traffic class, your video codec latency will likely be the problem. You should all monitor/measure that. But still you will need some sort of autopilot and many safety measures.

[emma1997]

Nearly impossible. Totally so for plane or multicopter.
...
Only way is with full on-board autopilot like MultiWII or Arducopter. Then only route change or system commands. Boat, plane, or car.

So what about this guy? Fake? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sdFccUkg-w&t=17s

I don't watch Youtube links unless video itself is attached to posts (and then rarely) but as hinted above it's hard to be sure what's real in lala land. What I do know as a long time RC enthusiast is none of my club friends or forum mates were happy controlling 4g or WIFI w/o some level of onboard autonomous control.

So Should i go back to the Radio system?

Judging by comments from others too here I'd say 'yes'. Many things sound feasible during imagination but don't work out so well in practice. IMO the advice from Gavinmc42 to go with off the shelf FPV setup is best. Or maybe DIY with separate camera/tx and video receiver w/rc remote. Probably don't save money but learn and have fun.

However if crawling over rocks or around the garden at 2mph is ok then maybe this could work. After all NASA got lots done with those rovers and delay was several minutes or hours. But for driving a typical model car maybe not so much fun.