Kid's Quad Hacking Into a Self Driving, Line Following and Obstacle Detecting Vehicle.

In today's Instructable we will turn a 1000Watt(Yes I know its alot!) Electric Kid's quad into a Self Driving, Line
Following and Obstacle Avoiding vehicle!

Demo video:

https://youtu.be/bVIsolkEP1k

For this project we will need the following materials:

3x TCRT5000 line sensor

1x HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor

4x 5V relay

1x Windshield wiper motor

1x Arduino

2x tooth gears

1x chain

Some metal

A lot of wires!!

And some motivation.

I have made a easy to follow instruction video with voice over here:

https://youtu.be/x573-DXd6lk

For those nerd's who don't need instructions or want to hack it here is a link to the Code and Schematic:

https://github.com/sieuwe1/kids-quad-hacking-with-Arduino

Step 1: The Hardware

Because it is mandatory on Instructables to have multiple steps I have created a couple here.

By watching the Youtube video you will get the same info as here. But with the video you can sit back with some popcorn and see how everything needs to be build without having to read a lot of text! Much better for lazy people like myself!

The hardware is pretty straight forward.

First construct a frame from a couple of iron tubes. This frame will hold the Electric steering motor. You can see in the pictures above how I created a frame. I welded all the tubes together but I used hose clamps to mount the iron tubes to the quad frame itself. This is so I can easily remove the system it when necessary.

After making the frame simply weld the electric motor to this frame. Make sure to use strong welds since this frame will need to absorb some stresses.

Step 2: The Electronics

The Electronics are also very simple.

Just follow the wire diagram shown above. Make sure to use some thick wires for the 12V system since they will have a lot of current.

Notice how I am getting the 12v for the H bridge circuit from one of the three batteries that are in series.

I also found another schematic (picture 2) for a h bridge driver with only 2 relays. This will probably also work but I have no made it myself.

Also make sure to find the correct throttle connector. This is the one on the third picture. Unconnect this wire and plug two wires into the female part of the connector which leads to the motor controller. The top left is the signal wire to the arduino and the bottom left is the GND wire.

Step 3: The Code

Simply download the code from my Github here:

https://github.com/sieuwe1/kids-quad-hacking-with-Arduino

Then upload it to the Arduino and you are done!

You can configure the TopSpeed (picture 1) variable. This will change how fast the quad drives. But I recommend not making this to high!

In the video you can also see the quad following white lines instead of black lines. How is this possible you may ask? This can be done by changing two if statements in the Arduino code (see picture 2, 3 and 4). So for example change for picture 2 the code from:

if (LeftSensor.read() > 100 ) {

To:

if (LeftSensor.read() < 100 ) {

Do the same for all 4 if statements.