The remote control toy cars now are passé. But the best thing that you can do and learn from the concept of a remote control car is that by using the same technologies, features, and techniques you can have your own go-kart just like the way John B. Carnett did in making his bigger and better-looking R/C bumper car.
He believes that if a small toy car can be operated using a remote control then why not a big machine. Further going into detail, he has shared all his experiences and the whole process of making this R/C car.
The basic things required for making the R/C bumper car are a receiver, a transmitter, and actuators at the receiving end so that the commands transmitted are properly and exactly received by the machine and executed well. Regarding commands, I must mention that there is nothing more to transmit to the machine other than asking it to move forward, backward, slowing or speeding up its pace, rotating the machine or keeping it “on” or “off”. If the machine can receive these bits of commands conveyed from the remote control then it is all set to go.
You should remember that while building an R/C car the torque that is to be used must be provided by the hobby servo. However, in the case of the larger machines, which could be anything like a lawn mower or an excavator, the torque supplied by a hobby servo will not work. Such machines would require greater torque to support movement and a highly powered servo can only supply that. Solution to that is very simple and the maker can handle that by arranging a DIY super servo. The benefit of doing so is quite simple – this process works well in cutting down the expenses.
The making of the super servo is easy and anybody can go for it. The things required for that are a windshield-wiper motor of a car and a potentiometer. A Futaba s3003 hobby servo can work really well as a potentiometer just the way the maker did. Then, the motor and the potentiometer will have to be connected to an R/C pulse-width modulation signal and finally to a motor-controller board. The Pololu Jrk 21v3 can be a good motor-controller board for the purpose. The power that you can create from this DIY super servo is some 15 pound-feet of torque that is pretty sufficient. So, good luck and enjoy commanding your own go-kart!
If you love making cool things yourself, you would be interested in the Iron Man Inspired Weapon DIY: Light Beam Blaster, the DIY Chess Table and the iPad Stand Made from Pencils.
Via: Popsci
