I recently picked up an Arduino with the goal of automating my Xmod R/C car, with silly additions (ie, speaker with a clip of Bender saying "KILL ALL HUMANS" on repeat). It already contains all the hardware I'll need, and I'm not interested in trying to interface with anything extra, like the R/C hardware or the built in support for LEDs used as head- and taillights. The car (obviously) has self-contained power (four AAAs underneath) and all the hardware necessary is already there: servo for steering, small motor, etc.
Has anyone tried something like this before? I'm not a new programmer by any means, but I'm fairly new to hardware and working with electronics, so I'm not sure where to start on reverse engineering this thing.
You can't do this with just an Arduino you need something like the wave shield to add on to it to allow you to play back recorded sounds.
It would be cheaper to hack one of those key fobs that do that sort of thing although I don't know if there is one. I have seen similar for Family Guy.
The audio part is kind of on the back burner, really. I'll probably just prototype it at first with a microcassette recorder and a rubber band. ;D
I don't think I'll need a shield or any extra hardware for the motor and servo, as the Xmod already contains hardware and a power source for them. I think the only trick will be simply replacing the connections to the built-in components with connections to my Arduino. I guess I just need help identifying them correctly. I can disassemble the car and post a few pictures with labels.