DAGU 4WD and hooking up with the batteries

Help & Support Robots & Kits
1

Hello All,

I’m a newbie to robotics and I would want to introduce my son into this field. However, he is only 5yrs old (6 this nov 2013) which means he needs lot of my help apart from starting with something very basic.

I looked at DAGU 4WD Chassis (robotshop.com/dagu-4wd-chassis-2.html) and was wondering if this would help him play with the chassis and motors.

I noticed that this comes with 4 motors and only one battery holder. Initially, I thought “oh, wow. I just need to hookup the motors and connect it to the battery holder and it will work”. Then I thought “How will only one battery holder connect to 4 motors?”. So this is my question.

Once I get the above setup working, would the unit run once connected to the batteries. I understand I will not be able to control it in any way.

With this working, what else would I need to implement a control mechanism that would stop the unit, make the unit go back and forth?

Thanks,
grajee

2

If you were to hook the motors directly to the battery pack, it would go full speed forward and that’s all (to stop it, you would need to remove the batteries). You would need to add wiring and split the two leads from the battery pack into four sets of four leads (soldering required).

Something which can do a bit more would be the Tamiya Remote Controller Kit 2 or the Tamiya Remote Control Robot Construction Kit. Note that we don’t have many kits which are intended for children 5 years old (because they almost all require assembly with very small parts, and considerable patience). If you want a simple kit which moves forward, consider the Tamiya Amphibious Vehicle Kit. If you have any other specifications, we can help you narrow the selection.