Remote Control Tank Drive
Intro: Remote Control Tank Drive
After reading a ton about remote control lawnmowers, I decided to build my own all purpose remote control vehicle for general yard use and lawnmowing etc. I started with a track set from an old snowblower. I reconfigured the track mounts as I wanted everything to be made out of stainless steel. I then built the pan within the tracksets so that everything would sit low enough to give it a good center of gravity while still having enough clearance to get over rocks etc.
I purchased the wheelchair motors from ebay and also bought a sabretooth motor driver to connect to the remote control receiver.
My first attempt used only a single wheelchair battery which didn't have enough speed for me so I added a second which greatly improves both torque and speed.
My plan next is to start adding accessories to it. I am planning of attaching a standard lawnmower to the front of it with a swivel wheelset. Next on the list is a small yard wagon to assist in gardening and then finally a snow plow or snowblower. The idea of the design is that I can add whatever attachment I want later on.
STEP 1: Some More Details
I have been getting a bunch of feedback so I figured I would go into a slight bit more detail.
The tracks are made from an original Sears Tracdrive snowblower. I bought the original sets from kijiji and modified the mounts and made them out of stainless. Once I had the trac drive system figured out I next purchased some motors off kijiji. The motors are direct drive to the tracksets. The only chains are within the tracksets to link main shaft to the drive gear.
STEP 2: Motor Types.
Pride Jazzy Z11 Left & Right Motors & Gearboxes. These were the type of motors I purchased. Just type them in Google and you should find them. They were good in that they were a good size.
STEP 3:
I then looked into motor controllers which would work with the design. I choose a Sabertooth dual 25A motor driver. This is a self contained unit that already is programmed to do a multitude of things. After looking at the costs of building my own amplifier and writing code for it, I decided this was a proven design that worked well.
https://www.dimensionengineering.com/products/sabertooth2x25
STEP 4: Chassis
Next was the chassis design out of stainless. I did it on Autocad. I purchased two wheelchair batteries to give me the torque and speed I needed. The above designs show the sketchup and autocad designs. The final top cover I haven't made yet, but the plan is shown in the attached pics. this is the reason for the change in chassis elevation.
The amplifier and controller are mounted over the motors on a small platform.
Thanks.
28 Comments
cpclass1 1 year ago
UnKommonWealth 8 years ago
sebastian_20141996 7 years ago
Que idea sería hombre
BhuvneshK 8 years ago
looks wonderful.may be i will make one,one day
TriptiU 8 years ago
send me email job4anil@yahoo.com if you still interesred to sell it.
DylanD581 8 years ago
EdJ7 8 years ago
Gomi no Sensei 8 years ago
EdJ7 8 years ago
DIY Hacks and How Tos 8 years ago
That looks really cool. Do you have any pictures of the creation process?
EdJ7 8 years ago
see updated information. Hope this helps.
1stPal 8 years ago
EdJ7 8 years ago
see updated information
acheide 8 years ago
It looks like you have put together a very useful platform. What kind of drive motors are those?
EdJ7 8 years ago
see updated information
panzua 8 years ago
Same question of Acheide: What kind of drive motors are those?
EdJ7 8 years ago
see my updated information
dege45 8 years ago
So little is not good!
We need more details
Which chains, wheels, engines, dimensions, etc.
Very cool project!
EdJ7 8 years ago
see my updated information
gweliver 8 years ago
Very nice start!
How many amps did you find the power chair motors draw?
What Sabretooth controller did you go with?
What type of track system or manufacturer did this come from?
How do you control it, joystick or RC controller?
Do you have FPV?