Araneid King RC Quad Tracked Car Hacking

Help & Support Robot Toys
1

The versatile Araneid King RC Quad Tracked Car plays a country western tune when the front or rear tracks are lowered/raised. Those who do not like this feature can disable it. First, remove all the screws holding the top frame to the bottom (there are about 18, so be sure to remove them all).
http://www.robotshop.ca/content/images/araneid-rc-open.jpg
The circuit controlling the audio rests between the drive motors, with two screws holding it in place. You can disable it by cutting the two power cables, cutting the signal cable or both.
http://www.robotshop.ca/content/images/araneid-rc-audio-module.jpg
You can also see how easy it is to hack this vehicle by replacing the main controller with two dual motor controllers.

2

Is it me or the main circuit board is the same size as an Arduino?

3

The controller is basically a bunch of power MOSFETs that drive the motors. In order to hack the robot you have several options.

You could yank all the electronics off and replace them by a quad-motor-controller such as RB-Tec-66 or RB-Cyt-20. The latter one could be safer since it is rated 3A (the former is 1A). You would need to measure the current consumption for the motors in order to be certain which motor controller to use.

Then you could simply control the motor controllers with a microcontroller of your choice.

If you want to keep the electronics, you could remove the original microcontroller and tap into the motor control signals with your own microcontroller. By using PWM signals, you should be able to control the speed and direction of the motors.

Once you have the basic motor controlling functionality, you can go crazy and add any control device, communication modules, sensors, etc. The Electronic Brick kit would be a good starting point for getting sensors and other cool devices.

4

Other than cutting wires to disable the sound on the Araneid King Car, or replacing the controller, I haven’t seen any hacking information. Does anyone have any documentation as to what’s in the current controller, or how to make changes?

Is there a copy of the instruction manual on line?

Thanks,
Pat

5

I am searching for this rc araneid king… but I couldn’t found any were i want to buy one, can any one tell me were i can buy this

6

RobotShop carried it for a while, but it was discontinued. The manufacturer page gives an error, so likely not in business.