Micro RC Car Teardown

by westfw

38K4663

Intro: Micro RC Car Teardown

This is sort of an "example" instructable for the Dr Destruct-O Teardowns group; something I did a few years ago. I don't know if this particular car is still available, but...

This is one of those mini remote controller cars that was all over, selling for $10 or less. It wasn't so great as a car; the "stunt" capability is derived from spinning the front set of wheels on a axis that runs down the centerline of the car, so you can't really steer it; you can just make it go forward, back, and tumble around. But the two channel Radio control might be reusable, and perhaps there are some tiny gear motors that might be extractable...

STEP 1: Under the Cover

I recall this being pretty easy to take apart. The body of the car comes off in an obvious way (small philips head screws?) This is what it looks like under the body, before further disassembly.

STEP 2: Electronics

The radio control receiver is on a nice tiny board that is surprisingly well labeled. Since there are two motors to control in this car, there are two fully-reversible motor drivers. On the minus side, the board uses "chip on board" (the main "smarts" are a a bare chip under that black plastic blob), so some of the modifications possible on receivers with identifiable chips and pins aren't possible here.)

(It would be nice to have pictures of the transmitter as well. Sorry...)

STEP 3: Naked Electric Car Guts

Here are the "internals" completely separated from the chassis of the car.

Note that the motors detach complete with their respective gearboxes, and have convenient places to attach devices other than the original wheels. This is EXTREMELY valuable; all too many toys have their gears mounted directly on the chassis, and by the time they are apart you have a motor and some loose gears. With the stunt car, you wind up with TWO gear-box motors, which are regularly worth about 10x the price of a bare motor on the surplus market.

STEP 4: Motors and Batteries

Here are closeups of the motors and the batteries.

The batteries are labeled as being "80 mA" (which isn't really a valid thing to say.) They probably mean 80mAH, which makes these NiMH cells. They're 1/3AAA size; which was pretty popular back before the serious RC crowd converted to LiPO.

The motors and batteries in this car are easily worth the $10 price tag on the car, even if you can't utilize the remote control...

63 Comments

RC Lover san 7 years ago

You can make amazing "things" with that car.

Please take a look at my Instructable...

https://www.instructables.com/id/Whats-Inside-My-RC-Lego-BB8/

taltaltal 9 years ago

ya.how is taking apart a car a project

Sergeant Sarcasm 10 years ago

"Flashing Light" is just copy and paste, like the "try me function" in my pic

awesomecreations 11 years ago

I literally have what is shown in these pictures on my desk in front of me right now.

Eddie4 11 years ago

how you were saying your not sure if that car is still availablei just bought one at a car show

dharmik 11 years ago

can any permium member send me the pdf of this to my address dharmik33@gmail.com pleaseeee...

snoopindaweb 12 years ago

Thanks for verifing the parts, My Step Dad was a TV & Radio repairman in the 60's, but thats about It, cOOl. G-G

Jedrokivich 13 years ago

I just had a vision of a tiny tank robot with those two motors and batteries.

tobyscool 13 years ago

I have the same kind of toy like that :P

pennnny 13 years ago

what would you recomend using the stuff for?

aeronut01 13 years ago

Thanks for posting this! It was helpful in aiding me in taking apart one of these without destroying it. I used the receiver in a remote controlled firework igntier and it was a huge success! I'm making an instructable on that soon, and I was wondering if it would be alright to put a link on my instructable that would lead to yours? It's to show the viewers what R/C device I used and how to disassemble it to get the receiver out.

liketoblowthingsup48 16 years ago

Hey, I have this same RC....I am ready to take mine apart... Any Ideas on what i could use the engine, wheels, and batteries with?? Awesome pics!! plz reply

Madrias357 15 years ago

Make a plane using them. That's what I did once. Lasted a week though (paper doesn't crash well, but looks awesome doing it.)

Madrias357 14 years ago

I know.  One of my friends lights paper planes on fire and throws them.

Madrias357 14 years ago

Wherever he wants, actually.  They land in pools, knock over drinks, land on glass tables, sail into other yards.  But, he usually follows them up with a bucket of water if they land somewhere where they can cause harm.  One managed to get away and landed in the river, though.

Colonel88 14 years ago

If you have the Vulcan,(nerf gun) or any other battery powered gun you can hook the motor up so it spins the gun left and right.Hook up the other motors wires to the trigger. And there, you have a radio-controlled weapon of mass destruction.
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