Autonomous Control of RC Car Using Arduino

This instructable shows how to modify an inexpensive RC car so it can be controlled by an on-board microcontroller.  You can program the controller to make the car do any number of driving patterns and stunts.  Once you have the car being controlled from the on-board controller, you can add sensors for light and sound and make the car do things like line following.

Step 1: Gather Materials and Tools

I used the following materials:
-RC Car - el cheapo from Walmart.  It cost $6 at my local Walmart.
-Arduino - I used the Duemilanove purchased from Sparkfun, (www.sparkfun.com)
-4 1000 Ohm 1/8 Watt resistors (color code BRN/BLK/RED). The value of the resistors is not critical.  Anything within 50% should work.
- 1/16th inch heatshrink tubing to insulate the resistors after they're installed
- 22 AWG solid  wire.  You'll need five wires, 6 to 8 inches long. I used Black for the Ground and White for the 4 control wires.
- a small amount of solder
 - 2 rubber bands
- 9V battery clip that plugs into the Arduino, also available from Sparkfun

Tools you'll need are:
- small (not tiny) Phillips screwdriver
- wire stripper
- soldering iron
- "third hand" to hold resistors while soldering wires to them
- small tip diagonal wire cutters
- desoldering tool or braid
- tweezers or small needle-nose pliers

Comments

[hibrahim2]

great tutorial but i have a question about the voltage level in the PCB that came with the car
(i have once connected sensor to the arduino but the arduino was representing HIGH by a different voltage range than the sensor)
should i connect the GND & VCC of the PCB to the arduino's GND & 5v pins ( i have seen someone doing so) or what should i do ? is the PCB connected to the batteries that drive the motors in some way?

thanks a lot

[careyfisher]

The car runs on its own batteries and the Arduino runs on its own 9V battery. Do not connect any wires between the Arduino and the car PCB except for those shown in this Instructable.
Thank you for watching!

[leeseibert]

I am in the middle of a Project similar to this. See my video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPLlTAVeIf8

[Zthewiz]

Awsome Project!

[Erdekim]

Will i be able to use the pins with pwm to control the speed of the car?

[R. Butch]

This comment is to "Careyfisher" (the author of this page).
I have used some of your pictures if you don't mind. I have given all credit for pictures to you/this page.

Thanks

Visit my blog

http://wordpress.as.edu.au/rbutcher/

[Chowmix12]

5/5* Ible! Loved it! i believe it will be featured soon! Very thorough. get back to us with some sensors and cool lighting effects, ya?

[R. Butch]

I have done this and it is very cool. Check out my blog. It is for school but scroll dow to "Videos of it doing stuff".

http://wordpress.as.edu.au/rbutcher/

[electronic boy]

will this work with any type of RC car that has that setup or is it a specific chip thanx

[R. Butch]

This should work with all RC cars. One thing you need to do though is not to use the same pins. They will be different. Test this by soldering a wire directly onto positive (from the battery) and put any resistor with red on it on the end. Then touch the wires and they should do stuff. Most wont do anything but four will do either forwards, backwards, left or right.

[okporuatega]

can i use an arduino pro for this project or only an arduino uno will do?

[playlee]

I follow your step by step, then I can drive the motor, but I have one question, how do you know the resistor should be 1K Ohm ?

[careyfisher]

I really just used a resistor value I had available. +/- 50% will work fine.

[playlee]

For pin's usage, I refer to RX-2B spec. just right as the author said :)

[eladrin201]

Which Arduino specifically did you use. I can't seem to find the Duemilanove you mentioned on Sparkfun. thanks.

[careyfisher]

The Duemilanove has been replaced by the Uno. They are essentially identical with a few improvements that won't affect this project.

[zack247]

very interesting! if you took the arduino chip out of the programming board or got a smaller version you could even fit it all inside the car! 5*s

[wfelix]

Or get a bigger car :D.
But I think he made this as a concept proof.

[careyfisher]

I really did it this way to make it quick and easy for Jr. High kids to put it together and have fun playing with it during a summer camp.

[nicat23]

Very cool I will have to try this when my arduino gets here!

[Jedrokivich]

Same here. I can't beleve it takes a month to ship from china...

[z28racer]

for Karonth you can cut the tracks on the PCB and put diodes in to protect the chip, the problem is when the Arduino and you are telling the H-bridges to go forward and backward at the same time it will ruin them. I am trying to find a way around the same problem. anyone with ideas? For amazing1 most of these cheap RC cars use 1 of two very similar chips with the same pin out.

[karonth]

I have a very similar RC car and I'm trying to build a self driving rover out of it, but I'd like to keep the RC circuit as a fallback solution.
If I don't remove the receiver chip and I solder the arduino wires piggyback style, do you think it could work or would I just fry the chip.
Thank you, great instructable!

[amazing1]

i just have one question, How did you know what pins to clean out and use? because if i am trying it on a different car that uses a different chip how do i figure out what pins to use, and to hook up to my arduino. this was a very good instructables by the way. Thanks

[careyfisher]

There are two ways to figure out which pins to use. First, try to figure out the part number of the chip on the board in the car. Then Google for it and see if there is a data sheet or something. The other approach is to figure out where the H-bridge is that drives the motors. The pins on the chip will connect to driver transistors that drive the H-bridge. HTH