Introduction: RC Car - 6 Wheel Hack
This was a 1 day build when I was bored at home.
I wanted a Radio controlled vehicle with 6 wheels, and as cheap as possible. So I bought 2 cars sawed one i half solvent welded the back end to the intact car.
The parts:
- 2 cheap rc cars(mine was Topraiders Tiger(Bionic) )
- Some legos
- 2 li-po cells
- Soldering iron
- Wires
- (some duct tape.......)
- Acetone
Step 1: Adding Extra Juice to the Car
I had some li-po cells laying around from an old laptop battery. The car takes 4 AAA(1.5V) batteries in series which equals to 6 volts, and a top speed of 12km/h(7.5 mph).
2 li-po(3.7V) cells in series gives you 7.4 Volts and therefore extra speed out of the motors and the benefit of rechargeability. (I charge mine using some alligator clips and a 5v cheap battery charger)
- Solder on the 2 li-po cells with some wires, connect one end to the negative terminal of one cell to the positive terminal of the other cell. Then add a red and black cable out ( I added a snap-in-clip-thing for easier removal)
- Take out the AAA-batteries and find the positive/negative terminal from the old battery pack which leads to the PCB. Solder a new set of wires to the li-po pack.
Step 2: Joining the Cars
I took the soldering iron and removed the motor wires from the PCB of one car, then sawed-off that car in the middle so the whole back-suspension system came out as one piece(ワンピース ;). That's because the hinge should still be in use so both back-ends(motors) is held in suspension.
I gladly found out that the cars chassis was made out of ABS plastic so I could solvent weld them with Acetone.
- I took some legos that seemed suitable as a linkage between the two, guesstimated the fit and fastened the legos to the cars with acetone, aim for as much surface area as possible so the solvent weld can make a strong joint. I used the battery hatch from the sawed up car as re-enforcement at the bottom och the joint.
- Take the connections, of the motor that is attached to the end of the 6 wheeler, and solder them to the PCB pads shown in the picture.
Step 3: Test Drive!
Make sure that your new vehicle is strong enough for the first test run, if you feel like the joint of the new back-end isn't gonna hold up, add some more legos(ABS pieces) with acetone to strengthen the cars rigidity.