Motion or gesture controlled gaming is cool no doubt – … until you start playing racing games.
Let’s face it, waving your arms around in front of your Xbox360 Kinect or wiggling that Wii Mote and tilting the crap out of your iPhone might be fun for the first ten minutes. But seriously you can’t play a descent race car or motocycle simulation racing game that way. It just does not give you enough control and is often not accurate enough.
I am not a big handheld gamer – actually I am not much of a gamer lately at all. I am still waiting for the nerve feedback system or the Equilibrium attachment that you stick in your ear so you can experience true motion in games. What’s really missing in racing games though is that kick in the guts, that “oh my god” my head is falling off during cornering and that rare sensation when shifting gears becomes a work out during extreme acceleration. The little rumble of the force feedback controller has a long ways to go…
Anyway, back to the problem on hand. Racing games are fun and motion controls suck.
Solution: Build a Continue Reading »
Here is the video showing the iPhone and iPod Steering Wheel and attachments (Wheel, Motorbike Skate/Surf/Snowboard) in action.
Aside from being a lot more fun it actually makes racing games such as Moto GP, GT Racing etc a lot easier to play.
The platform is build on just a few lego technic pieces. I was not going for prettiness or fanciness – I was just going for function.
Here is a cool Blueprint of a 2005 WRC Subaru Impreza in Monte Carlo Rally Spec.
I found the Subaru Blueprint a long time ago on the web – not sure who deserves the image credit. If anyone knows let me know.
Last week I finally got rid of the old Futon couch in the living room. The new found space was immediately put to good use by driving the rc car in living room – what a mess! A much cleaner and better living room toy is of course a slotcar track.
Of course it wouldn’t be any fun without modifying a few things. So I added some LED lighting an LCD display hooked up to an Arduino and computer based lap and race timing system triggered by photo transistors in the track. The track power comes from a lap power supply allowing for more control over vehicle speeds. The stock Carerra GO slotcar hand controllers have been replaced with 1980′s Carerra Servo 140 controllers which where much much higher quality and allowed for much more precision.
Considering that I am getting to the age where I value a good comfortable chair, I decided not to put the track onto the floor but clean off the desk and build a little extension with a piece of shelving wood and a 2×4 for legs. The result is lethal for cars that fall of the track, but a really awesome Continue Reading »
The average WRC Rally car (based on 2010 spec rules) needs about 4.8 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph or 0 to 100 kmh. In comparison a high end open spec Rally Cross car (think of Ken Block and Xgames) can do it in a shockingly fast 2 seconds.
Yes that is Formula1 speeds – to avoid confusion, the rally cross car (which is different then a WRC rally car) is much lower geared and will Continue Reading »
If you are serious about about playing with electronics and rc cars you will quickly find the need for a consistent AC power source.
….if you are really serious then there is no way around investing in a nice regulated multi-voltage and adjustable current lab power supply. Here are some Google results in case you are not sure what those are. Obviously those are superior to any homemade or DIY power supply.
But let’s say you need a cheap 12Volt supply to run your DC rc car charger or maybe you build your own RC track and you want to add some low voltage lighting. In this case you don’t want to expose your $300 regulated lap power supply.
Easy solution – build your own 12 volt power using an old Xbox 360 power brick!
An Xbox360 power supply can be easily found on ebay for cheap. However you will notice that when you measure the contacts that your meter reads 0 (zero) Volt. That is because the 360 power supply has a stand-by mode.
1) To remove the Xbox360 stand-by you simply need to open the power supply – you will find 4 screws under the rubber stoppers/pads).
2) You will see a red and blue wire. Now you have 2 choices. Option 1) Add a switch in between the red and blue 2) Just connect red and blue together (short them out) and your 360 power brick will always be on when plugged in.
3) Next remove the positive and negative cables and solder your own cables in place.
Putting lights onto your RC car is a lot of fun and adds realism – plus if your lights are bright enough you can “really” drive in the dark .
You can purchase pre-build lighting sets from a lot of manufactures – which offers an easy way to get you started. Alternatively you can build your own lights for a fraction of the cost and likely with a lot more output and brightness. In my previous post I build headlights for my Tamyia DF03RA Subaru Rally car. The next logical step is to add rear lights and brake lights.
The rear lights are rather straight forward – just get some red LED’s wire 2 (one for the left side and one for the right) in series and add a resistor in series to not fry them when connecting to your rc cars battery. Remember LED’s always need a resistor and the size depends on your LED.
Building brake lights for your RC car is a bit more tricky. Most commercial rc car brake light kits only Continue Reading »
Ever since I was a little kid I was fascinated by night races. Regardless of what form of racing – night time racing has something very special to it.
Unforgettable moments of night racing are Rally Cars in the snow during the Sweden Rally, glowing brake discs and the super bright pitlane in backdrop to the dark Circuit de la Sarthe better known as the 24 hours of Le Mans.
Ever since we started Rally Cross racing our RC cars in our homemade backyard Rally tracks we knew that we had to race in the dark at some point. If you are following my blog you may know that I am not a big fan of buying off-the-shelve products to solve those fun engineering challenges.
The first stage in my RC car Rally Lights project was to build a simple prototype LED headlight array that would attach easily to the car. I opted to use Lego Technic pieces because 5mm LED’s fit perfectly. Plus if you drill out the pieces just a little bit you will find that they fit very nicely onto standard body mounting posts.
This LED Remote Control Car headlight array connects to the cars main battery Continue Reading »
Here are a few more images of my motorized and remote controlled 8053 Lego Technic Mobile Crane. You can watch the video here to see the lego crane controlled by an RC Radio.
Image below shows the front driver cabin. The the left is the circuit board for the Flashing Hazard and Warning Lights and in the middle is the Futaba Receiver for the drive, steering and crane turning control.
What does a remote controlled and motorized Lego Technic Crane have to do with rally racing? Nothing – but it was a cool project so I thought I’ll post it.
Here is the Video:
For Christmas I received the LEGO 8053 Technic Mobile Crane which right out of the box is already awesome. It got all-wheel steering (8 wheels) and a really cool gear selection setup to control the crane arm to go up and down and extract, in addition to powering the hook winch.
During the building period between Christmas and NewYear (yes I actually took my sweet time rather than rushing through it) it became clear to me that this Lego model just beckons to be remotely controlled in some shape or form.
Of course it is easy to just go online and order a bunch of motors – Lego has some really awesome motors these days for their MIndstorm and Technic Models. But spending money felt like cheating. So I decided I will make due with whatever parts I have…
Continue Reading »
Idea:
Build a Race Start Light System instead of saying “Ready, Set, Go”
Concept:
2 IR Detector’s connected to an Arduino Microcontroller listen for 10 pulses from a TV remote coming at 38khz to avoid sun light interference.
If 10 pulses are counted then the Arduino will blink the LED’s 3 times. This tells the racer that the TV remote signal has been received.
A short delay gives time to store the TV remote and to focus on the actual Race start.
The start sequence works similar to an F1 or German Touring Car start. The LED’s come on one at a time with a short delay and go all out at the same time which is the start of the race.
The Arduino resets after the start sequence and waits for 10 pulses again to start the next starting sequence.
Due to the fact that the IR LED’s are pulsed they can be “over driven” as far as current goes – which is the reason why a TV remote works from easily 20-30 feet away.
Video:
Items List: Continue Reading »
Who will win?
1) Traxxas Nitro Monster Truck
2) HPI RS4 Rally Car on Brushless Lipo Setup
3) Kyosho Custom Stadium Truck
4) Tamiya DF03 RA with Stock Motor
The Traxxas Monster Truck has all the power in the world – but a high center of gravity requires the truck to go around Continue Reading »
I really enjoy running my RC car on my backyard track for a few minutes while taking a break from work. (I work from home -thank god for the Internet). The biggest problem is – or was- that it took simply way to long to put the car together to run it and then take it all a part to charge it for the next time.
I identified 4 major needs:
1) Easy to activate – but waterproof On-Off Switch
2) Totally sealed Body and Chassis that does not let any dirt in
3) Easy access to Charging Port/Plug for Batteries
What good does it do you to spend a bunch of money on a Rally RC car such as the Tamyia DF03-RA Series when you can’t drive them in conditions that make Rally racing so much fun.
Yes we are taking about driving our precious RC Car in the mud, rain and through big puddles of water. We don’t have snow where I live but I would love to do that too (Sweden Rally anyone).
The big problem is that the tub of the rc car will fill up with a bunch of dirt and water in no time at all. On my backyard track I have to dump out the car after 5 laps because it is filled up with dirt. I initially tried building my own electronics dirt and splash cover but results where less than stellar. The big question you may ask is why not use the Tamiya “Dark Impact” body as cover. Well A) I did not know about it initially – although a quick google search would have revealed it and B) once I did find out I was simply to cheap to blow $35 bugs on a piece of plastic. Needless to say I finally got over myself and ordered one on Ebay.
I read a bunch reviews regarding the Dark Impact Buggy and quickly learned that the number one complained was that the car fills up with dirt – which told me I can’t just cut along the lines that Tamiya suggest to trim the body to fit. I carefully cut away one plastic piece at a time to make sure I cover more open spaces compared to Tamiya suggestions.
Picture below: Test driving the Dust and Dirt Cover based on the Dark Impact body:
One concern is of course heat. Having a tight fitting body is awesome – but that also means that there is zero airflow Continue Reading »
The following article will compare the Tamiya Subaru 1/10 scale model versus the real Subaru Works Team entry. The scale model is really close in scale. Well done Tamiya.
All measurements are in metric – we are talking engineering here. The data comes Continue Reading »
The one year anniversary is coming up for my Tamiya Rally Car and my backyard RC track.
In its first year my Subaru DF03-RA which runs on all stock parts with a descent battery (except for a brushless motor for the first 3 month until I submerged the motorcontroller) completed about 2250 Laps around the track. That makes for about 80 laps per session and a total of 28 Sessions in a year. Amazingly at a track length of about 50 meters (150 feet) that adds up to 112.5 km (70 miles).
The track has undergone some small layout changes and one extension. The most recent addition brings the total length to 205 feet / 62.5 meter.
The car chassis is in amazingly good shape but the body needed a little fiberglassing in the front area. Tire wear is minimal due to the soft clay surface of the track.
My homemade mud/water and dirt cover did not work as well -hence I finally ordered the “real thing” which is the body for a Tamiya Dark Impact.
Race lap counter and timing is still an issue. Also the webcam based lap timer works fine, I don’t like the fact that I need to set up a PC outside. I takes way to long. I did buy an Arduino microcontroler and LCD screen which I will build into a Waterproof Infrared triggered timer setup. More on this after Christmas when I have time to build it.
You could say it was about time that the US had its first European style Rallycross event.
That’s after all what my backyard RC car track is all about :-)
Hooray!!! I finally finished the track extension gaining a solid 70 feet of track. I ended up using a lot more space then what I outlined in my original post.
Here is a satellite view of the new track layout with the addition.
The best thing about a track extension for your backyard RC track is that it does not cost you anything other than a few hours of “healthy” shoveling and digging in the fresh air. Well the “fresh air” part depends on where you live I guess… Continue Reading »
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