In this tutorial I will show you how to make a buggy powered by raspberry PI, a minicomputer. I worked on this project during the summer and managed to program a moveable buggy thanks to the help of the raspberry PI website.

The original project for this instructable: https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/build-a-buggy/2

Some requirements before making this

Experience with Python Based coding
Booted Raspberry PI OS
Soldering Experience (Optional)
Full Computer Equiptment Setup

What you will learn from this

Experience in programing Pre-Determined movement
Circuit Management
Software Installation

Supplies

1x Raspberry Pi 3 (Ideally 2 USB ports)

This is what will power the entire thing. Essentially the computer that allows us to move around the buggy.

1x Dual DC Motor Board

You will need this to connect all the motors for your wheels of the buggy along with your battery holder and will basically control all of them.

2X DC motors (Cables Pre-Soldiered Optional)

These are what we will use to make the wheels of the buggy move.

1X 4XAA Battery Holder

These will be used to power the motors

1X Small Box

We will use this as the chasis of the buggy.

2X RC Car Wheels

These will be used to make the buggy move through the surface.

1X SD Card (For PI OS)

1X Screw Driver

1X Wire strippers

1X Solder (Optional)

Step 1: Install Raspberry PI OS and Setup (If You Haven't Already)

This step is for people who have purchased a new Raspberry PI and have never booted it up before. If you have, then you can skip this step.

You will need:

Raspberry PI
SD card Adaptor (Optional)
A PC
Computer Peripherals (E.g, Keyboard and Mouse)
SD Card (8Gb-32Gb)
Power Plug with USB-C Port
Monitor

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Installing the OS onto the SD card

1) Plug your SD card into your PC using an SD card adaptor if your PC doesn't have an SD Card Port already

2) Find the SD card folder and keep track of the name of it (This will be important for later)

3) Go to the Raspberry PI downloads website and click on download for windows

4) Once you install the app and open it, You should be directed to a page where it makes you choose the operating system, choose Raspberry PI 32 Bit.

5) Now click choose storage, and select your SD card from the storage options and click "write" to start the process.

Optional) You can customize some settings for your OS before writing such as Hostname, SSH, etc.

Booting Up Your Raspberry PI

1) Eject the SD card from your computer when it is safe to do so. Remove it from the adaptor if it's Micro SD.

2) Now take your raspberry PI and insert the Micro SD card into the slot at the back of the board.

3) Connect your Raspberry PI to your monitor using the HDMI connectors

4) Plug in your Raspberry PI to the power supply VIA the USB-C port on your Raspberry PI, the Raspberry PI should boot. (It takes a few minutes before it boots into the OS)

5) Plug in your computer peripherals to the board once OS is loaded.

Getting Setup

1) In your OS, in the top bar go to accesories and then click on terminal.

sudo apt-get update

2) Inside of terminal, type the following:

sudo apt-get 
dist-upgrade

It should take a few minutes for your PI to update.

3) Now, we need to install MU, in the top bar go to preferences and click on "recomended software".

4) Select MU from the applications to install and wait for it to download.

Now you're ready to start the project!

Step 2: Assembling the Motors and Board

You will need

Motorboard
Raspberry PI
DC Motors
Soldier and wires (Optional)

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Connect Motor Controller to Raspberry PI

The instructions on a specific motor board should usually be in the manual.

Soldering Wires to Motors (Optional)

1) Strip the ends of the wires which you are going to solder

2) Remove the plastic clip from the motor to make soldering to the contacts more simple

3) Solder the wires to each of the terminals on the motor. It doesn’t matter which wire goes to which terminal. The reattach the plastic clips.

4) Trim the tips of the wires to ensure they do not touch the metal casing of the motor. It’s also a good idea to wrap the ends of the motors in tape, to stop the soldered joints from breaking.

Connect the motors to the board

You will need to connect the motors to the board. For this you will require a small screwdriver.

1) Insert the wires into the slots on the motorboard

2) Screw the wire slots back into the motorboard

3) Repeat the process for the battery slots.

Connect Motor Board To raspberry Pi using the cables using the cables and setting them to the matching pins from your instruction manual.