Brookstone Rover Massive Upgrade!

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Intro: Brookstone Rover Massive Upgrade!

The brookstone rover is a awesome toy rover easy to use, but the range is not as good at all...

So, I dicided to do a massive range upgrade with it!

I used a L298N H-Bridge for motor control, a Arduino UNO for controling the H-bridge and read the receiver values, a Turnigy 3XS radio system, a Sky-zone complete 5.8 Ghz FPV system with HobbyKing's DIY FPV Goggles, and a Turnigy 2s 1600Mah lipo for the rover and a Turnigy 3s 2200 lipo for the fpv receiver system.

(Sorry about the messy wires all around, I will fix it later)

Hope you enjoy!

STEP 1: First, Remove All the Rover's Components That You Can, Unless the Motors

STEP 2: Screw the Arduino Into the Board (I Could Be Able to Screw With Only Two Screws)

STEP 3: Gather Your Receiver, in This Case, a Turnigy 3XS

STEP 4: Connect Jumpers (Female-Male) to the Arduino Pins As Shown

STEP 5: Gather a L298N H-Bridge and Connect Jumper Wires (Male-Male) for the 4 Output Pins, for +5V, for GND and for the In1, In2, In3,In4 (Female-Male). Gather a Battery Plug and Connect Its VCC to +12V and Its GND on the GND.

STEP 6: Connect the Jumper on +5V to the VIN Plug on the Arduino, the GND Jumper on the GND Plug on the Arduino, and the In1, In2, In3, In4 Jumpers to Pins 5, 6, 7, 8 on the Arduino.

STEP 7: Plug OUT1 and OUT2 to the Right Motor Pins and Plug OUT3 and OUT4 to the Left Motor Pins on the Arduino.

STEP 8: Pick a 7.4V Battery and Slide It in the Top of the Arduino

STEP 9: FPV Install:

In my case, I used the complete FPV SkyZone kit with DIY FPV goggles, but you can use any FPV system you want.

I unscrew the rover camera and glued with hot glue on the front of the rover (the housing doesen't appear in the video feed) and I punched a hole in the back of the rover and slided the antenna through it and stuck the transmitter there with tape. (The transmitter doesen't fit under the normal antenna hole). It's powered by the balance port with jumper adapters (Female-Male) to give 7.4V to it, as shown in the second picture of this step.

STEP 10: The Top Part May Look Like This.

STEP 11: Gather You Transmitter to Use With It, in This Setup, a Turnigy 3XS

STEP 12: And It's Done! Here's a Build Video for Better Understanding.

STEP 13: Here's the Code for Controling the Arduino:

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8 Comments

I build tank with robotic
arm with 12 volts battery. For controller I use Fly Sky radio controller. I
found the code for my project https://github.com/dzzie/home_automation/blob/master/RC_L298N/RC_L298N.ino
but it’s working only for one motor! So sad ☹ I looking for somebody who can help me with this
simple code for complete my project ! Also I try to understand how to add more function to this code , for example
turn on/off light.. this is link when I found the code; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_N5HmXmDyk



Help
please with my code.

What code did you use for the arduino to read the input of the Receiver? I've been trying to find a good setup to use arduinos and RC electronics for a wireless camera setup for scenario game purposes.

Sorry for that, I will put it soon, because I am finishing to put the comments on the code. I'll send it today afternoon, thanka for your comment!
Sorry, I wrote in danibelgas phone :(

Thanks for your comment! I never knew about that!

I know they're under Brookstone's Label, but who makes these now?
They were under "Spy-Gear"'s label before, called the TRACKR. There were
posts here in instructables, as well as Hack-a-day, by someone who did some pretty amazing add-ons for the TRACKR, and these were supposed to be a 'hackable' - Programable device when Spy-Gear was selling them in toy stores..

No ideas if they ever got to the point of activating the 2nd USB port. (yes, the ARM CPU had up to 3 USB ports.. the main programming/FLASH-RAM port (through a 5-Pin B), a standard A socket (which never got activated) and a 3rd, which was just the solder pads for a 2nd 'A' socket.) Also, they were almost a ESB3866 style proprietary 2.4Mhz link between the TRACKR remote, and the device. The Brookstone version used a re-worked WiFi 'host'. (regular dongle, but acting in Router/Host )