RC CD Racer

by rcspaceflight | April 11, 2013 | (9) Posted in Just Fun

It rained all week and is supposed to continue for another week. No flying for a while but I still want some RC fun.

I was originally going to make a different RC car out of extra plane parts that I have. After figuring out how to make a continuous servo, this idea popped into my head and is even cheaper and better than the RC car I originally planned. I remembered in high school I did a class project where I made a solar powered car using CDs for the wheels. This makes it cheap, light, and gives the motor a lot of leverage to speed it up. Perfect wheels for a servo powered car.

Video:

Material list:

2 Hextronik 9 gram servos modified into continuous servos. (See previous article. Link on the bottom.)

2 CDs.

Scrap piece of foamboard.

BEC or ESC with built in BEC.

Any LiPo battery you have. The smaller the better.

Tx and Rx system capable of Delta mixing.

Glue.

Either velcro or zip ties to hold the electronics and battery in place.

Build:

Step 1: Glue servo arms to the CDs in this fashion. (Make sure they are centered. Otherwise your wheels will wobble.)

Step 2: Cut your scrap piece of foamboard into any size that will hold everything and won't hit the ground. Actually, it's fine if you have the foamboard dragging behind the two wheels. It might catch when you go backwards, so, just don't go backwards over anything.

Step 3: Glue the two servos you modified onto the foamboard. Make sure they are opposite each other and parallel.

Step 4: Mount all of the necessary electronics and battery to the foamboard.

Step 5: Screw the two CDs to the servos.

Step 6: Mix your Tx so you have Delta mixing. (If you don't know how to do this and you specifically have the Hobby King 2.4ghz 6 channel, ask and I can do an article on how to. I won't write that article unless I know people want it. Also, that is the only Tx I have ever had. I don't know how to Delta mix on anything else so don't ask.)

Step 7: Plug in all the wires. (An ESC can be used as a BEC, just hook it up normally but with nothing hooked up to the motor wires.) Finally, drive it around. It should drive just like a tank. Make any adjustments to the Delta mixing if it isn't running the way you desire.

COMMENTS

Andre Santa-Maria on April 16, 2013
cool. This gives me an idea of making a legit car using any old motors and servoes you have lying around.
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rcspaceflight on April 17, 2013
I was originally going to use a prop motor to power a car with a servo to steer the front wheels. But I would have to either buy a car ESC with a reverse, or just not have a reverse. I may still try to do that, but I don't know if I want to try to use gears to power up the wheels and slow down the car, or if I want to use pulleys and a rubber band. ... This was a lot simpler.

Of course a fan car would be simple too. I know someone else has an article up about his fan car.
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british rcairways on April 16, 2013
please can we see a video
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rcspaceflight on April 17, 2013
I just sent an article to be published with a video. Hopefully FliteTest will have it up shortly.
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rcspaceflight on July 3, 2013
(I deleted that article and updated this article with the video. I originally didn't do that so I could make it more well known that I made a video. But now that this article is old, I thought I would condense the number of articles I have.)
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Sirglider on May 4, 2013
Did mine today! Much fun!
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kenton on April 15, 2013
fun idea, this article needs a video of the action!
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earthsciteach on April 15, 2013
This one will go into my Science Olympiad files. Cool idea!
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RC CD Racer