In this tutorial we will learn how to build a simple wired remote control car. Building your own simple yet powerful wired robot is the first step in the field of robotics. To begin building your car you first need to decide few things about it. What kind of steering you want? In this tutorial we will build a differential drive car.
A car has mainly five things viz. tyres, motor, chassis, axle and remote controller. A chassis can be made of anything which is flat, light, flexible, hard, and easy to cut like Toughened Styrofoam, Acrylic sheet, plastic tray, etc. Now we should select our tyres. Tyres should also be light in weight so that they do not put extra load on motors. Tyres can either be made by wood or plastic or could be purchased from market. We would require at least four wheels. You can add more wheels depending upon your car’s dimensions. We can use tyres of any appropriate size. You can even use pram wheels or bicycle’s side wheels. Once you have selected tyres you will need axle to support your tyres. A steel rod or aluminium rod of appropriate diameter can be used. Just take care that the rod fits properly in the tyre and tyre is not slipping over the rod. Now you need to select the most important part of your car i.e. motor. An internal or external geared D.C. motor of 12V or 24V rating is best available in the market. You can select the speed of motor depending on the track where you will run your car. If you select a motor with high speed then it will provide less torque and if you select a motor with high torque then its speed will cripple. An appropriate range of motor speed is 100-200 RPM. If you plan to run your car in mud, dust or sand then you should prefer an internal gear system to avoid jamming of gears with mud. We would require at least two motors. You can even use four motors if you wish to provide more power to your car. All the motors should be perfectly identical.
After you selected and collected all the required material for your car you are almost half the way to run your car. Now it’s the time to assemble your car. If you are using two motors on front wheels then make your rare wheels free to rotate with the help of ball-bearing. Assemble one motor on right front wheel and other motor on left front wheel. Mount both the motors and tyres on the chassis with the help of nuts and bolts. Once you assemble your car, check that it is moving freely. If the car is not moving freely then align all the tyres again so that they are free to rotate. So now the mechanical work of our car is complete. Now we have to make it run on electricity and control it via remote control. For this purpose we will use differential drive. Before building a differential drive, you should know how it works. If you already know about it then you may skip the next paragraph.
Differential drive is the easiest way to make your robot steerable. In differential drive system we mount one motor with right wheel and other motor with left wheel. When both the motors are rotated in forward direction the car moves forward. When both the motors are moved in reverse direction, the car moves backward. If we rotate right motor in forward direction and left motor in backward direction a torque is produced in anti-clockwise direction and the car turns to left. Similarly if left motor is turned in forward direction and right motor in reverse direction the torque is produced in clockwise direction and car turns to right. This is all about differential drive. With differential drive we can rotate our robot by 360 degree at a single point.
To change the direction of motor we need to change the polarity of supply. This can be done using H-bridge circuit. An H-Bridge circuit can be made using four SPST (Single Polarity Single Toggle) Switch or one DPDT (Dual Polarity Dual Toggle) Switch or using BJTs (Bi-Polar Junction Transistor). The easiest way is to use DPDT switch but if you wish to use microcontroller, then you will need to create a BJT H-Bridge circuit. Now make the connections as shown in the circuit diagram of the DPDT switch.
Make a truth table for all the possible inputs of the switches for your convenience. For the power supply you can use an adapter or an eliminator or make your own transformer. Select your power source with enough current rating so that the speed of motor does not decrease during an obstacle. The best way is to make your own power supply. To build your own power supply, purchase a transformer of 220V to 24V, 4A rating and apply a Bridge rectifier to it. Use 1N4007 diodes and 2200 microF capacitor for bridge rectifier.
By now your car must be complete. So enjoy with your car and test it on various tracks. Modify your car if required.
February 7th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Hey nuclearsam,
though its your first writing at ZHAGDOO.
I found it quite influential, interesting, informative and above all innovative.
Hey you through this will inspire lot of technical guys to share there knowledge and lots of layman like us will be drawn to such technologies.
Moreover you just made ZHAGDOO a bit more versatile.
great job Mate…
Kudos to your remote controlled CAR
February 12th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
hey this all new technocrat segment is really cool!!! very innovative…n deserves applause…real good job nuclearsam…lookin forward to more such hitech posts!!!
March 12th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
cool
March 12th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
mind blowing
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:03 am
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November 10th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
plz send me the detailed circuit diagram of this car as soon as possible its urgent..
November 26th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Iys a good way to Make An RC car. Thanks
January 9th, 2009 at 6:03 am
What about the remote controlled part? Is that difficult. can I make it myself? Like buying a circut board at radio shake?
January 16th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Can u plz send me the detailed circuit diagram for radio control..
January 17th, 2009 at 10:37 am
@James
remote control part is also easy and you can make it yourself. The circuit diagram is given in fig. 2, you just need two DPDT(Dual Polarity Dual Toggle) Switch and connect them as shown in figure… Thats it!!!
January 17th, 2009 at 10:38 am
@Ankur
—
in this tutorial we are using a wired remote control. if you want to make a wireless remote control then you can buy a radio transmitter and receiver from radio shake and use it to control your car…
February 5th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Hey!!!! i really wanna make a RC fast car…..pls can u help me???
i nead the materials required & circuit diagrams for both car & remote…
March 28th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Respected Sir,
I am having a problem in the aisle to support the tyre.Please help
May 12th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Hey!!!! i really wanna make a RC fast car…..pls can u help me……. Can u plz send me the detailed circuit diagram for radio control. plssssssssssssssss
June 2nd, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Hi
thanks alot for ur help but it seems m having a problem i have made my rc car with 2 motors but sometimes both motors doesnt get equal power so it starts rotating can u pls help me with that
&
also i didnt get the last part its something about transformer n stuff can u explain it again pls
- Thanks
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:30 pm
@neer
if both the motors of your car does not rotate at the same speed then the car will not move straight, it will either turn right or left. this problem may occur in the following cases: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. the two motors are of different rating, or different model — sol: use exactly similar motors of same rating. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. you are using different source of power for each motor — sol: use single power source for both motors. if you want extra power for your car then club two or more power sources together in parallel circuit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3. one of the motor is not able to move freely due to some obstacle or friction — sol: clean and oil both motors so that they are free to rotate. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4. your car is not properly balanced — sol: check that the weight of car is equally divided on both of the motors.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. . .. . . .. . . . . .. . .. . .. . . .. . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. . .. . . .. . . . . .. . .. . .. . . .. . . .. . . . . . .
the last part of the tutorial is not related to car. the last part tells how to build your own power supply. we are using a step down transformer to reduce the AC voltage. then we are using a bridge rectifier to convert AC to DC. if you know about bridge rectifiers and converting AC into DC then it would be easy for you to build your own power supply else you can use ready made power supply or you can use batteries..
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:59 am
hey tysm for the help i was using 2 different batteries for each motor
now m using 9v battery for both motor n seems the problem is solved & i dont have ne idea abt redtifiers n transformers so i guess its none of my buissness
-thanks for the help
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:02 am
oh well can u help me make this car into radio controlled car (wireless) or if u know ne sites that can help me pls tell me
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:50 pm
to make your car radio controlled you can either purchase a ready made radio receiver and transmitter and integrate it in your car. or if you have knowledge of circuits and digital communication then you can build your own circuit for it. there are various circuit design available on net for it, you can google it. else i wud write a tutorial on radio controlled car soon. . . . tc..
June 4th, 2009 at 2:30 am
ok i dont have knowledge abt circuits so can i get trasmitters & reciever from ne ellectronics shop or i have to search for it somewhere else ?
it’ll help if u write a tutorial take ur time
& thanks alot for sharing the knowledge & for helping
August 22nd, 2009 at 4:20 am
well a power supply will have only 3 terminals(1 +ve, 1 -ve n a grd),rit?? so using these 3 terminals only, we have 2 get 4 supply paths…..m i rit in thinkin so???or r we goin to use 2 power supplies, supplyin d same power…
August 22nd, 2009 at 11:09 am
@debasmita……. . . . . you don’t have to use two different power supply……… the power supply has three terminal and you can select any two of them. for eg. if you use +12(or -12) and 0(ground) then you get a potential difference of 12 Volt, if you use +12 and -12 then you get potential difference of 24 volt……… now connect these two terminals to four motors in parallel…. if you still have any doubt then let me know… tc…
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:07 am
Heeey! Nuclearsam can you help me out and give me the circuit diagrams!plzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!!!!,
January 20th, 2010 at 11:49 am
its very much practical
from my experiance also using materials mentioned here are really effective