Arduino based rc car

Using Arduino Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

Arduino based rc car
I'm starting a new project this week and aim to build a fully functional arduino based rc car.

So far I've either bought or ordered

  1. Arduino Uno
  2. L298N Dual Motor controller shield
  3. 6 channel RC transmitter and receiver.

Hopefully this should take care of the brains of the unit.

I'm having a bit of difficulty sourcing motors. In my mind this machine has to go as fast as possible and handle terrain, similar to this Rip Saw - Tracked ATV - YouTube

On the other hand I don't have much money so I'm reduced to scavenging most parts from a recycling centre.

I have a 30v drill motor and battery pack (no charger) so another one of those and I should be fine.

For tracks I'm thinking of something similar to this:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-...acks-for-very/

The body is going to be made from a mix of plywood and sheet steel, again, based on the quantities I can either find or buy cheap.

It won't be a pretty machine, but it will work probably

If anyone has any ideas or contributions please let me know.

My long term plan is to use this as a base for an array of sensors and develop a fully autonomous robot.

2

obviously scaled down a bit. haha

im not sure about that driver board:
Motor supply: 6 to 35 VDC
Output Power: Up to 2 A each

is 2amps enough for the motors? id use a amp meter to test the drills at full speed to see what(amps) they use.

3

The size of the motors is going to depend on the size of the vehicle. "Scaled down a bit" is ambiguous. To me, that means somewhere on the order of 1/2 to 1/4 scale, cause that's only "a bit". Based on the rest of your posts though, I'm really hoping it means somewhere on the order of 1/8th to 1/10th scale to you. In that case, the motors would be adequate, or maybe even a little on the large size.

On the subject of the tracks, low budget and tracked vehicle don't really go together. The link you provided to the hand built tracks is broken, so I can't comment on that. Building a tracked vehicle to handle rough terrain comparable to the video you posted WILL required a full suspension track, and that won't be cheap or easy to build.

4

No-load full speed, with permanent magnet DC motors (such as most drill or other cordless tool motors) will require almost no amps. You get high-amp loads at zero RPM - stall is when you'll burn out your controller, not full speed. 2A isn't much amperage, you'll probably have your problems when you're trying to turn in place, which will have both motors fighting against each other.

Tracks are neat, and good for a lot of traction over most terrain, but you'd probably be better off starting with wheels for simplicity. Another option would be to use the Arduino to interface not with a shield, but with a set of Victor 883 controllers or similar, which handle 30A at 24VDC for as long as you need, or many more amps (90A or more for a second or so) for short periods. Yet another option would be to select a battery pack that won't source more than 2A.

Stray

5

Have a look at http://letsmakerobots.com/

They have lots RC robots for inspiration!