I'm planning a project - a self-driving RC car. The idea would be to use a 1:10 RC car chassis/motors for a racing robot.
In my mind this is fairly simple - I should be able to control the motors at the point where the Receiver sits?
However, I've noticed that the hacks I've seen - automated or otherwise work on the Transmitter instead. What's up with that? Is it simply to remove the arduino kit from the car? Because I'd rather have the car as entirely automated and not relying on other, wireless components.
I used to fly IC model aircraft, and I certainly could replace the Rx with my own device for servo control. I guess the problem with a lot of cheaper RC products might be that they're all factory sealed and not intended for modification.
Can anyone enlighten me?
I'm just worried about picking up an RC car then discovering I have no means of interfacing with it how I would like.
You are pretty much correct. If you get a “real” RC car that has a regular reciever then it is as simple as controlling the steering servo and the ESC using Arduino servo commands. The really cheap cars can be a little harder to hack. I have hooked an Arduino to an expensive and cheap one. The cheap one I just removed all of the circuitry and installed my own motor controller. I think I have seen people examine the circuitry and figure out how to hack it. I know Frits did this with his wall racers.
I am still confident that the controller could be attached to the receiver board. This saves the H-bridge since it’s already onboard. Good luck and keep us updated
Thanks guys. Nice examples. I should have seen those before, but I have to say LMR is a cool blend of forum/wiki like site that I haven’t quite gotten used to.
At the moment I’m playing a Rover 5. But now I’ve had some reassurance I’ll look out for a car that I could use as a racer.
