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Learn to: Set up a workspace for electronics

projects

Automate the home and garden,including a tweeting pet door

Build a GPS Data Logger andan RFID Reader

Create many other Arduinoelectronics projects

 Arduino®

 Pro ject s

Making Ever ything Ea sier!

™

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Chapter 14

Building a Remote-Controlled Car

You can buy remote-controlled car kits in hobby shops, but building your own is much morefun @@md and it’s easy to do with an Arduino  and a little ingenuity. In this project, youcreate a fully drivable remote-controlled (RC) car by using an ordinary household remotecontrol, an Arduino, and servo motors. You use your Arduino to decode the signals comingfrom any of your remotes and then use the decoded signal to tell your car to move forward, backward, and turn.

One cool thing about this project is that after you figure out how to use any old remotecontrol with your Arduino, you can transfer this capability to just about any other projectthat you want to add a remote control to!

 Selecting and Preparing Your Parts

The parts you need are shown in Figure 14 -1. You should get together the followingcomponents to build your car, which will take about fewer than five hours from starting gunto finish line:

* An Arduino

* A remote control

* TSOP2438 or TSOP4838 Infrared Receiver Module (Vishay Semiconductor) (MouserElectronics 782-TSOP2438, and RS Components #708-5070). Alternatively, use a

PNA4602 module.* Two continuous-rotation servo motors (such as GoTeck GS-3360BB, Futaba 900-

00008, Jameco #283039, or the Arduino Servo Module, Rapid #73-4464)

* A battery holder for 6 AA batteries and a 9V battery clip

* Six AA batteries

* Eight header pins

* A breadboard

For the chassis:

* Two cylindrical cans of Pringles ® 

 Brand Potato Chips

* Two rubber bands about 8cm (3-4 inches)

* A piece of scrap plywood or balsa wood, at least 11x17cm (4x7 inches)

* A ball caster kit (Tamiya Brand @@md or Jameco #358336 or Cool Components#000984)

* Mounting hardware or hot glue

* Self-adhesive hook-and-loop fastener (optional)

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Figure 14-1: The parts you need for this project.

You can use any Arduino for this project. An Arduino Uno is shown in the figures.

The awesome thing about this project is that you can use pretty much any remote control youhave in your house. You don’t have to use the Toshiba remote shown in Figure 14 -1. Wehave six of them, and we only use two, so I grabbed a spare one. You should select a remotethat has arrows in the directions that you want to drive: left, right, forward, reverse, and@@md the all-important @@md stop! I got one of our old television remotes because it hasa circular input pad, with a button in the center, which is a good place for the “brakes”. It is possible that during testing, your remote will not be detectable. You might need to try adifferent one if you can’t detect it during your testing.  

The key component of this system is the Infrared (IR) Receiver module, a VishayElectronics TSOP2438, which operates on the 38KHz carrier frequency. Other frequenciesare used as well, but you need to detect 38KHz, one that is most common to householdremote controls. The component works by sensing the Infrared light patterns emitted by yourremote and translating them into digital output signals your Arduino can read using a specialIR library.

<TechnicalStuff>

Only infrared light can be detected by the sensor @@md its epoxy case acts as a filer onother light frequencies. However, ambient light has infrared signatures, too. For example, afireplace is a great source of heat and is also in the infrared spectrum. So this component isdesigned to ignore such stray noise.

Servo motors come in two flavors: 180 degree sweeping motion, or continuous rotation.Because you are using these motors for propulsion, you must get continuously rotatingservos, such as the ones listed. The servos operate at 5VDC and can be somewhat powerhungry. They also come with an accessory kit that contains mounting plates and armaturesand an assortment of screws for mounting them. You need an additional angle bracket if youwant to mount the servos using this hardware. You can also s imply mount them to your carwith hot glue.

You use a 9V battery pack for the project. You could use a single, rectangular 9V cell, but itwon’t last very long. The servo motors are pretty power hungry. You should get a 9V battery pack that holds six AA cells. They offer a nice balance between lifespan and weight. Theheavier C or D cells last longer, but they may be too heavy for your car to move easily. Lookfor a battery holder that has a snap connector like those used for 9V batteries. This makes iteasier to detach your battery pack from your car when it’s time to reload . Figure 14-1

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You need eight header pins. The longer ones are easier to work with. You use two for your battery pack, and the other six to connect your servos to the breadboard. Header pins usuallycome in long strips, so just break off a short section of two pins and two short sections ofthree pins each.

For the chassis, you can use any small piece of wood you might have lying around. The

styling of the chassis is up to you, but the frame itself is carrying the weight of thecomponents and the more weight you have, the more durable your design needs to be. A piece of scrap plywood should do nicely. You can also use plastic, balsa wood, or evencardboard, as long as it’s large enough to support all of your components and the material isnot too heavy.

Probably the tastiest part of the project is the two cans of Pringles, which you use as thecar’s wheels @@md sadly, not the fuel. You can use almost any kind of rigid disc as awheel, but Pringles (in addition to being edible) are easy to get, cheap, and the cans have ametal base. You need two wheels, so that’s two cans. You c an use small or large cans, sinceyou are only using the metal base. I’d recommend large cans (more chips to eat!). You alsoneed two rubber bands that can fit snugly around the cans without distorting them. Withoutthem, your wheels won’t get very good tr action.

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