Pinewood Derby Police car

It's Pinewood Derby season!  This year I am building one with an arduino chip inside.  This car has LED head and tail lights.  Also it has red and blue flashing lights that are controlled by the arduino chip.



I'll show you how to build one of your own.

Step 1: Prep and parts list

First thing we need to do some prep.  The main things we need to sort out is what the power source will be and what chip will control the LEDs.  There is not much room in a pinewood car so the smaller the battery the better.  I used an old cell phone battery.  It was fairly small and fit well inside. It is also rechargeable so I can use it again.

For the arduino chip I am using a ATtiny85.  This chip is smaller than the regular arduino chip which is good because of the room we have to work with.  This chip is a little differant to program than the regular arduino chips but it is fairly easy.
Hear is a link that shows you how to program the ATtiny.
ATtiny

Pats List
Pinewood derby kit
Battery
4 bright white LEDs for headlights
2 red LEDs for tail lights
Red and blue LED for flashing lights
ATtiny85 and arduino
any other electronics to complete the circuit. (wire, switch.)

Tools
For making the car I used a hack saw and a dremel and it seamed to work just fine.
soldering iron and solder
Paint
hot glue gun

Comments

[cj8675]

so you know thats not regulation looking
it cant be over 5 or under ounces
and it cant be that short

[shaggs31]

I don't know how you can tell the weight of it by a picture but it is far less than 5 ounces. With that big cavity that is carved out of it to house the battery and circuit board, it removes a lot of the weight.

As far as the length of it, I have found nothing that gives a minimum length. (At least not for the race that I built this car for.)

Every race is different and rules can be made or changed for each race.

[cj8675]

im second class boy scout ive been to the regionals and they are extremely tough about your cars demensions and mass your pack may not be as strict but the statewide races are

[shaggs31]

So I fail to see the point you are trying to make hear. If this car is to short for regionals than just lengthen the design. Myself I wasn't concerned about rules anyway. I was only interested in make a sweet looking car.

[OCPik4chu]

great design and I love seeing people really customizing their pinewood derby cars, just ignore that other person. Plus there is no official minimum length for a pinewood derby car so I dont know where he got that from. There is a minimum wheel(axle) distance and a maximum car length and you look to be within both of those so you could certainly enter it into the nationals even if you wanted to. However some formats for the nationals do not permit electronics and lighting but the size and weight of your car are perfectly fine.

[sjoobbani]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE POST A VIDEO!

[shaggs31]

do you mean a how to vid or a vid of what the car does?

[sjoobbani]

one of the lights in action!

[cj8675]

i thought you were going to race it. i like the design though and im going to vote for you in the contest sorry