Introduction: RC Car "Go Anywhere" With Live Video Feed

About: My name is Simon Sörensen and I am the creator of RCLifeOn. I´m 19 years old and live in a town called Trollhättan, located in the southwestern part of Sweden. I´ve been in the RC hobby f…

What would you think about going anywhere, but not physically be present at that very position? Sounds great, and the best part is, the equipment needed is no more than 250$. How is this even possible? I will go in more depth of the specific components, but first, watch the video.

Step 1: What Is This?

What do I actually do? I control a radio controlled car from inside my house using a monitor with a live feed from the car. This makes me able to sit inside my house driving the car more than 200m away from me while watching the monitor.

How it works

A camera is attached to the car, and the camera is connected to a video transmitter. The video transmitter transmits the video signal back to my video receiver attached to a tall pole just outside my house. I long cable runs from the video receiver to the inside of my house, were the cable is connected to the monitor and the video is displayed.

Step 2: What Equipment Do I Need?

If this is your first radio controlled project, you might need all of these items. If you're are an experience RC hobbyist you may already have numerous of these components. Here's the list:

Ready-to-Run RC Car

  • RC car
  • Transmitter and receiver
  • Charger
  • Battery

FPV Gear

  • Monitor
  • Video transmitter (>600mw)
  • Video receiver
  • Batteries
  • Antennas
  • Camera
  • Long cable (>10m or 32ft)
  • Tall pole (>3m or 9ft)
  • Tools

Step 3: RC Car

Hobbyking has some decent ready-to-run cars, meaning, the transmitter, charger and battery is included. If you just want to do some lazy driving these cars will work just fine. If you want a bit more quality and performance I recommend: https://traxxas.com/

Hobbyking cars: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__910__908__Cars_Parts-Electric_Cars.html

Step 4: FPV Gear

Monitor: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__78125_...

Video receiver + video receiver:http://rctimer.com/product-1257.html

(Want longer video range? This could work: http://rctimer.com/product-1212.html)

Camera: http://rctimer.com/product-1466.html

Step 5: I Have the Equipment, How Do I Make It Work?

  • Install the video transmitter and camera to the car. Earplugs is a great way of attaching the camera as vibrations is minimized.
  • Solder the video signal cable from the monitor to the long cable, and solder the other end to the video receiver.
  • Build a tall pole using a fishing rod or connecting dowels, the higher up you can attach the video receiver the better!
  • Attach the video receiver and stick it to the ground outside the house.
  • Now go!

Step 6: Improvements

200 meters (656ft) is not too far, it might take to a couple of blocks away. If you want more range you will have to do some upgrades. Here's a 2000mw video transmitter and receiver, it should give great range for your video. Depending on your enviroment and the obsticles around your area, the signal might be good for up to 1km (3280ft). However, with houses and trees blocking your signal, your range could decrease to just 100m (328ft). This is why we need to upgrade our equipment.

In my video you will notice I'm standing inside with the the radio controller, for maximum range you want to place the transmitter antenna outside the house as well! For better range you could also upgrade to the long range equipment, found here: http://www.getfpv.com/dragonlink-2-long-range-433mhz-uhf-tx-and-rx-system.html

Robotics Contest

Participated in the
Robotics Contest

Tech Contest

Participated in the
Tech Contest