Bluetooth RC Car

What and Why?

Typically whenever I get off school and start my summer vacation, I find myself with a lot of free time on my hands to do whatever I want. Knowing that I have had past experiences using microcontrollers, I wanted to challenge myself by learning how to utilize bluetooth control and motor drivers. I have always admired RC cars and wondered how they are made, so I decided to create my own bluetooth conroller car. At the time (Summer of 2020), this project has the hardest that I had undertaken, however once I finished the reward was worth every step. I learned so much about how to better and further utilize microcontrollers, as well as other electronic components. I also learned a lot about coding since the project was very dependent on having proper code to ensure that everything ran smoothly.

Demonstration

There are two demonstrations below. The first one is of the final version without a case, just to show the components and all functions. I then transferred all of the electronics into a new, covered, case and also tested it out:

Progress Photos

First Prototype - The marker was used to see if the car was moving straight and the trajectory at which it could turn.

I was then able to refine the RC Car by using a new board instead of the Arduino, this one had a built in bluetooth module as well as a better motor driver. This made it much easier not only to space the components out on the car itself, but also made the code more reliable due to the better components.

After testing, I slighly adjusted the code and better secured all of the components into place by making a closed case with a hinge to easily access the internals when needed. This smaller form factor was great because it allowed the car to be faster and not get stuck nearly as much as before.