Since the powerbank needs to power four items with only two USB ports, I built some USB power splitters. It is also one of the highest capacity powerbanks currently available, so I don't need to worry about it dying before the car battery dies. The specific model I chose is the Cygnett 11000mAh Charge Up Pro because it has dual USB ports - one port can provide up to 2A, and the other port can provide up to 1A. The powerbank provides power for the Arduino, WiFi router, IP camera and NeoPixel stick (all of these devices operate on 5V DC power). Also, the drive motor is powered / controlled by the ESC. Note that the steering servo is powered by the ESC's Battery Eliminator Circuit (BEC), which provides regulated 5V DC output. The NiMH battery provides power for the ESC and steering servo. The car has two batteries - a 7.2V NiMH battery and a 11000mAh powerbank. These springs are much better than the original springs (the car only drops 0.5cm), but are still a little too soft - mashing the throttle will cause the car to list like a sinking boat! To fix this, I purchased and installed four super-firm springs. For electronic components such as the Arduino, some plastic was placed on the aluminium plate for insulation.Īfter mounting most of the components onto the car, I found that the original suspension did not cope well with the added weight - the car dropped about 4cm from its original height. The various parts are either screwed to the aluminium plates or cable-tied. I then used some aluminium angle and large aluminium plates to create a flat mounting surface. To mount all of the parts, I removed the original plastic battery/ESC tray. I found that the Axial AE-2 ESC would be the most suitable replacement, since they have clear instructions for setup and configuration (see ). Since I intended to control the ESC through an Arduino, I needed an ESC that could be calibrated and programmed. The original ESC had no documentation on how to calibrate it, or program its features. The car came with a 7.2V NiMH battery, electronic speed controller (ESC) and a brushed motor. It is also a knock-off of the Axial Racing AX10, so it is easy to find compatible spare parts :-P. The specific model I chose is a HSP Pangolin because it was cheap. However, they are generally not as fast as regular RC cars (geared for high torque instead of high speed). RC Rock crawlers are 4x4, have locked diffs, (relatively) high ground clearance and large suspension articulation, so they are less likely to get stuck when driving over obstacles. The type of RC vehicle I've chosen for the platform is a 1/10 scale Electric Rock Crawler. The following hardware components are also required on the PC side: Optional - Ethernet port (but if the laptop doesn't have one, you need access to a computer with an Ethernet port) 11000mAH dual USB power bank (power supply for Arduino Mega, Wi-Fi router, IP camera, NeoPixel stick)Ī laptop is required to communicate with and control the car. 7.2V NiMH battery (power supply for ESC and steering servo motor) IP camera with Pan/Tilt and IR Night Vision XBee Series 1 Pro (60mW) wireless module Arduino Mega (you will need a Mega for this project) Aluminium base plate and aluminium angle for mounting other parts Axial Racing Electronic Speed Controller (ESC) The car consists of the following hardware components: Note 2: Skip to the conclusion to see the upgraded version of the car ( Raspberry Pi 2 camera + pan/tilt servos) Note: This project has a lot of software content in it, and is a long read! (I've tried to add detailed comments into the code, but beginner programmers might find it a little challenging to follow) If you would like to make your own car with different hardware, you will probably need to make minor changes to the C# and/or Arduino code. The software has been written specifically to work with the hardware items (eg IP camera) I've used. Watch the embedded YouTube video to see the car in action.Īll of the Arduino and C# code is provided within this Instructable. Configurable RGB lights (Adafruit NeoPixels) Controller vibration / force feedback effects based on the car's accelerometer "Analog" throttle (electronic speed control) and steering, using an XBox 360 controller PC Based Control - The car is controlled through a custom Windows application (C#) The car has no real purpose - it was just a challenge, to see what could be made with commonly available hardware. This Instructable describes a remote control car I've put together.
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