Building an RC Car Using a 433 MHz RF Transmitter and Receiver

In this project, I will be showing you how to create an RC car using a 433 MHz RF transmitter and receiver.

Step 1: Gather the Materials

To begin this project, you will want to make sure you have the parts to complete this instructable. The parts needed are listed below.

1. Two Arduinos (One for the joystick and transmitter and one for the motor driver and receiver)

2. 433 MHz transmitter and receiver

3. Jumper Cables (Roughly around 10-20)

4. L298 Motor Driver

5. Two Breadboards (One for the joystick and transmitter and one for the motor driver and receiver)

6. Two DC Motors with Wheels

7. Three 9V batteries and 9V Battery Adapters

8. A Chassis (You can build your own or you can find one online to buy and use)

Step 2: Wiring and Coding the Transmitter

To begin, you will have to put your transmitter on one of your breadboards.

On the transmitter, there are three pins. The pins are ground, VCC, and data.

First you are going to connect the data pin to the D12 (digital pin 12) on the Arduino using a male to male jumper.

Then hook up VCC to RX and GND to ground onto the Arduino.

To power the Arduino, you will then use a 9V adapter and plug it into the Arduino and attach the battery to the other side.

Step 3: Setting Up the Receiver

On the receiver, the pins from left to right are GND, DATA , DATA and VCC.

Using male to male jumper wire, wire the GND from the receiver to the GND

on the second Arduino that you have not used yet. Then you wire the DATA pin from the receiver to pin 2 on the second arduino.

Lastly, you wire the VCC pin from the receiver to the RX pin on the second arduino.

After doing this, use a male to male jumper wire and connect the VIN pin on the second Arduino to the 5V port on the Motor Driver and connect the GND pin from the second Arduino to the GND port on the Motor Driver.

Then with two female to female pins, connect pins EnA and EnB on the motor driver to the 5V pin on the motor driver.

With four female to male pins, connect In1 on the motor driver to D10 on the arduino, In2 on the motor driver to D11 on the arduino, In3 on the motor driver to D6 on the arduino, and In4 on the motor driver to D7 on the arduino.

And lastly, you will need to power the Motor Driver and the Arduino with 9V batteries. To power the Arduino, you will then use a 9V adapter and plug it into the Arduino and attach the battery to the other side. then for the Motor Driver, you need to wire up positive to the VIN pin on the Motor Driver and negative to the GND pin on the Motor Driver.

Step 4: Assemble Chassis

For this step, you will be assembling a chassis. To do so, you can use any type of fasteners such as velcro, nut and bolts, etc. For mine, I used velcro and nuts and bolts to keep everything held in place.

Step 5: Uploading the Codes

All we have to do now is is upload the codes to the Arduinos. The first code will be used for the transmitter and the second code will be used for the receiver. Below are the codes.