Why have a real car when you can have a toy car? Plus, you have the satisfaction of building it yourself. Once you create the basic setup for a car, you can make it look however you want. You can let out your creativity in a fun and interesting way!

Step 1: Set Up the Arduino

Materials Needed:

Arduino 101 Sparkfun kit

styrofoam

2 motors

cardboard

aluminum foil

3D printing program

Using your SparkFun Arduino 101 kit, carefully follow the instructions located in the SIK guide to build circuit #12. This will give you the setup for the first motor.

Step 2: Add Another Motor

Attach an identical motor parallel to the one already added for Circuit #12. This will give your car the capacity to have four wheels.

Step 3: Run the Code

Using the SIK code guide, follow the instructions to download the Arduino software onto your computer. You will have to download the "101 SIK Guide Code" to be able to access the code for circuit #12. Once you have set up the code, ensure that your motors are running by verifying and uploading the code.

Step 4: Create a Wheel Attachment

In order to attach your wheels to the motor, you will need to design a piece on an online design program such as Onshape and 3D print it. You will need to make four cylinders. The bottom cylinder should be slightly wider in diameter than the wheel you are going to attach, the next cylinder should be the size of the diameter of the inside of the wheel, the third should be identical to the first, and the fourth should be centered on the third and approximately half the size. The fourth cylinder is where the actual motor will be attached, so you will need to extrude a hole in the shape of the motor. It is best to design the part in millimeters and print it as 1 part.

Step 5: Build the Car

Cut a piece of styrofoam in the shape you want your car to be. Then, cut an identical piece of cardboard. Attach the arduino board to the styrofoam. Then, create supports out of aluminum foil balls (about 5) and glue them to the cardboard. Then attach the styrofoam to the aluminum foil supports. Next, attach the motors to the bottom of the cardboard, one on each end. This will create the basic car structure. From here you can design the car to look however you want.