father son project - BT rc car

Projects General Guidance
1

My kid is obsessed with electronics and building stuff. So i thought it would be cool to build a rc car with him and use a tablet as the controller. Ive seen controller apps on the play store that are for bluetooth arduinos.

However, im completely new to this, but do have a basic understanding of electonics (from research on building a battlebot when i was a teen). I think though, if someone could point me in the right direction, i could figure most of it out. I would like something expandable so we could add things to the car... like an airsoft turret something down the road.

i know ill need a board, not sure which
the bluetooth module
a car chasse (found a cool looking track one with motors online)
motor contoller

2

I have seen the models you mentioned, they are sold as complete units .

Im not aware of any boards made specifically for self build.

I have been looking for a while and would be delighted to be proved wrong with a suitable link.

The apps generally are designed for a specific manufacturers model.

While a bluetooth equipped arduino would work , you will still have to hack or build the phone app to make it work.

It could be frustrating for a youngster.

2 ch radios are not that dear, you could try a traditional build with the future possibility of developing a tablet control.

3

the apps i was looking at were more like bluetooth game pad apps that i figured i could map the commands from the app to run the motors in the car

Im fairly sure i can figure out the software side of it, its just the hardware side im a bit in the dark about.

I also got to thinking, that it might bi cool to be able to add sensors down the road and make it autonomous, and still be able to flash it back to manual when we want to jsut play around with it.

4

ive got most of the hardware mapped out and already have a mega board that im playing around with (picked up a sunfounder super starter pack)

Im still not sure about what bluetooth module to grab. looking for suggestions

5

If you are good in Serial, you should pick up a hc05 from ebay. They are very cheap. They use serial to communicate with your phone. But beware! They use 3.3v ttl logic which means your mega will kill it! So you must use a voltage divider to divide 5v to 3.3v. Have fun!

6

You can power the motors on that Rover 5 with a couple $3 L298N h-bridges from ebay.

Here's a tutorial I wrote about using L298N h-bridges. At the end of the video I show a pair of the L298N modules powering one Rover 5 bots.

The HC-05 is a good choice for a Bluetooth module. A member of the forum, kas, wrote Joystick BT Commander. You could use it to control the robot from an Android phone.

Check this post again.(Links have been added.) I'll add a link to a HC-05 module (includes level shifting circuit) and some L298N modules.

Edit: Here's a link to another Rover 5 forum thread. More links to come.

As I mentioned in the L298N tutorial, there are lots of better h-bridges than the L298 but the L298 works and is really cheap.

I used a Propeller microcontroller with my Rover 5 projects but I plan to duplicate some of the functionality with an Arduino. I can likely help with the code when you need it.

7

You may find this RemoteXY programmable Bluetooth app useful

...R

8

ill look into the links in more detail this weekend, but thanks for the help.

i was looking at the motor controler that was actullaly made for the rover 5

http://www.robotshop.com/en/dagu-4-channel-brushed-dc-motor-controller.html

9

ok, so i got most of all the parts in. Im still waiting on the motor contoller in.

Are there any good tutorals around that will teach me about the codeing and use of the bluetooth? i ended up getting a cz-hc-05 Bluetooth module