Category: Fab Academy Providence -Year II – Teaching

Final Project Description

For my Fab Academy final project I have been working on a RC Car. In its final state it should:

• Drive forward, backward and be able to stop
• Turn left and right (forwards and backwards).
• The car will be linked to the controller through wireless radios that communicate with modified hello Arduino boards.
• The modified hello Arduino boards have an extra 6-pin header in order to access the analog pins on the micorcontroller (for control buttons / pots.

Items Currently Completed

• Arduinos and servos working together
• Radio and battery boards designed, milled and working

Completed Radio Boards

Completed Hello Arduinos

Completed Battery Connector Boards

Completed Hello Arduino w/ Analog Pin Header
There were no analog pins pulled out to a header on the hello Arduino board – I needed some for this project – so I added an analog pin header.

Hello Arduino w/ Analog Pin Header (traces & outline)

Battery Connector PNGs (traces & outline)

Radio Board PNGs (traces & outline)

Not Completed / Not Working Yet

• The radio communication code has not been tested yet (short on the radio boards – still troubleshooting)
• Still working on the press-fit car design – the car axels are not ready yet.
• The servo controls are not hooked up.

Download Design Files (Eagle)

• Radio Board – Schematic
• Radio Board – Board
• Battery Connector – Schematic
• Battery Connector – Board

Get PNGs For Milling

• Radio Board Traces- PNG
• Radio Board Outline- PNG
• Battery Connector Traces – PNG
• Battery Connector Outline – PNG
• Hello Arduino w/ Analog Pins – Traces PNG
• Hello Arduino w/ Analog Pins – Outline PNG

Bill Of Materials

• Coming Soon / Export from Eagle Files

Development Plans

• Finish building the car
• Test the radio boards
• Hook up controls to the servos

I am working towards my Fab Academy final project – a digitally fabricated RC car.

Items Completed So Far:

Radio boards have been designed (based on the JeeLabs RFM12B Board)


I designed the battery connector boards

Hello Arduino boards milled, stuffed and programmed with Arduino bootloaders and tested with the servos

Tasks That Still Need to Be Completed:

• Radio boards need to be milled and assembled.
• Battery connector boards need to be milled and assembled.
• Radio boards need to be tested to see if they communicate with each other
• Car controls need to be figured out
• Code needs to be modified / written and tested to make the radios communicate with each other.
• Code needs to be written for the car controls.
• Car framework (wheels, axels, body) needs to be designed and assembled

Items That Still Need to Be Resolved / Not Working Yet:

• No analog pins on the Hello Arduino? How to hook up the controls?
• Use Fabkit instead? (burned the bootloader, but the Arduino IDE won’t talk to the chip).
• “Fingers crossed” that the radio boards will actually work.

Completion Schedule:

• Planning on completing the project by the June 1 deadline . Otherwise, before the August 15 final completion date.

This week at Fab Academy we are planning our final projects.  I am creating a digitally fabricated RC car.  First I defined my all the system components, how they would interact with each other and what the logic / voltage levels needed to be throughout that system.

Logic Levels / Radio – Functional Block Diagram

What Will It Do?

• Drive forward / stop
• Turn left / right
• Use radios to control the car wirelessly.

Who’s Done What Beforehand?

• David Mellis made pressfit cars – this one needs to be more of an enclosure to house the electronics
• JeeLabs: http://jeelabs.org/ has created some code and designs that I plan to modify and use with the Hope RF radios.

What Materials and Components Will Be Required?

• 2 servos
• 2 radio boards (utilizing the Hope RF radios)
• 1 or 2 Arduino boards (hello Arduino boards)
• Masionite
• LEDs (possible decoritive addition)
• Acrylic (possible decoritive addition)
• Possibly plastic to cast parts (possible decoritive addition)
• Metal rods for axels?
• copper-clad PCB stock
• Various components already in the inventory

How Much Will It Cost?

• $0 – $20 Most parts already in the inventory.
• Need to purchase Hope RF radios – $12.00 for a pair.
• Need to purchase a few additional non-standard, non-inventory components from Digikey ($10.00 + shipping).

What Parts and Systems Will Be Made?

• Connect the radio boards to the Arduino
• Figure out how to issue commands to control the car
• Turn lights on and off

What Processes Will Be Used?

• Laser-cut press fit for the car body (possibly being replaced by molded shell / parts)
• Milled circuit boards.
• Molded parts for wheels / accessories

What Tasks Need to Be Completed?

• Need to investigate how to get the boards to talk to each other.
• Control with computer keys at first.
• Would like to eventually add a wireless joystitck control box.

What Is The Schedule?

• This Week –> Design the car and investigate the how to talk to the radios
• Next Week –> Troubleshoot the project, work on the control structure.

How Will It Be Evaluated?

• Can the radios talk to each other?
• Do the controls work?