Nitro Mini RC Car

Intro: Nitro Mini RC Car

Quite recently i got a broken Air Hogs "Havoc Heli" mini toy helicopter. it was brutally beaten with either a wall or a baseball bat, either way there was no styrofoam and the helicopter was lucky to have the electronics intact.
I was wondering what to do with it when I saw my large-ish collection of mini RC chassis'.
With no forethought I grabbed the most complete chassis and started orienting the parts. The battery went where the circuit board and Ni-Cd battery used to be and the new circuit board lay on top of the small plastic cover.
I took the motor from the rear propeller on the elicopter because it fit perfectly without any modification to tho RC chassis.
Then I soldered the wires for the tail motor to where the original motor used to go and resoldered a broken battery connection.
Then came the first test.

The result was a very fast little car, but it kept spinning out of control and the top wouldn't fit on because of the orientation of the circuit board and IR detector.
I flipped the board over and extended the wires on the IR detector.
Unfortunately while I was soldering the new wires on I melted the tiny power switch. And I had none to replace it with.
I found a spring loaded pressure switch and I added wires between it and the contacts from the original switch.
I glued the switch to the motor's pressure bracket (It holds the motor in) in such a way that the car would be on when the top was, this helps in the future because the crcuit board has no LED to signify that its on, so resoldering parts could be dangerous, now its safe no matter what.

Then came the matter of the spinning out. I tried several different sets of tires and it still spun out. Then I realized it wasnt the tractionthat was the problem but the front wheels. They werent anchored so they were free to turn whenever they wanted, at high speeds they turned randomly and the weight of the car kept them that way. The car doesn't actually have any steering.
I used my soldering iron to melt the plastic by the pivot pins for the wheels (I did my best not to breathe the fumes) and they were straight and true. It took a few tries because if the wheels' height was too different then the car would still spin out.
then I got some tires from my Zip Zap mini RC (it is sort of messed up) and put them on the rear wheels.
This improved the grip, thus improving the acceleration.

This is the end result, a extremely fast mini nitro RC car, i hope to get a video up soon of it in action.

Comments

[Sircurtis]

Great little guide, thanks for sharing how to repair/remake this tiny rc car. With a good soldering gun, time, a few small tools and a little know how they all can be fixed or modified to be better.

Related: Tiny RC Car Video http://tinyrccar.com

[symcclendon]

Pretty cool. I like how u use the motor from tha other rc heli.










Btw I'm also a furry

[symcclendon]

Pretty cool. I like how u use the motor from tha other rc heli.










Btw I'm also a furry

[Sergeant Sarcasm]

This isn't a Nitro. It's electric. But nice idea and good way to use broken stuff. Zip Zaps are discontinued but all over ebay so you can find em!

[berrymartin]

Really nice Where you get this beautiful min rc car This is a nicely designed. I must say that this is one of the best car that I have seen in a long time..I do find it quite interesting, thanks for sharing......

[zack247]

the chassis was from one of those cheap little can cars, you should be able to find them for cheap in a walmart or similar, if not in a second hand store.

[aaronXtreme]

could you try to makr an airplane instead?

[aaronXtreme]

thats so cool!

[Kryptonite]

Sounds like a neat little project, nice job! You'll definitely have to implement steering though! Good luck, it certainly doesn't look easy but at least you'll have fun in the mean time! :D

[zack247]

i wish steering was easy to do on these chassis' with how little space there it, the car originally used magnetic coils to turn teh front wheels, but the helicopter's steering fan was configured to always be spinning so i wasnt sure how to go about the steering with the way it is.

ive got another 3 boards, so long as i can get the remotes for 2 of them, i'll be making more of these.

[Kryptonite]

I'd love to see how they go, keep posting!

[zack247]

the next versions might be larger, these are a bit too small to build a circuit to control the steering with.

[mechaninja]

In some cases, cheap RC cars from a resale or low-cost store have extremely tiny limited motion (about 15-45 degrees in either direction) can motors in the front chassis. I recommend the cars with a cord running to the battery pack, I'm not sure if the wireless ones are worth the $5-$10 bucks you pay.

[a4great]

try adding a body like this for aesthetics:https://www.instructables.com/id/RC-Body/. i would use copper tube and hot glue to attach. although weight could be a problem.

[zack247]

i dont know if weight would actually be a issue, it could possibly even help with the performance of the vehicle by puting more weight on the tires and keep it from skipping along the ground.
theres just not a lot to show here.