my faggot parents never bought me a power wheels and i forever resent them for it

*coughFIRSTcough*

Posted at 11:17 am on Nov 10th, 2009 by kirov

teen wolf

Posted at 11:21 am on Nov 10th, 2009 by toogood

If you can slave it to a PowerWheels, you could slave it to another car. [Picturing a dozen cars so slaved driving in unison, doing synchronized routines or driving in tight formation.]

Posted at 11:52 am on Nov 10th, 2009 by gomi

Darwin awards candidates!

especcialy if it’s jailbreaked iPhone, they might get also Rick rolled!

Posted at 12:05 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by deadeye

@deadeye
Rick rolled, followed by barrel rolled…

Posted at 12:13 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by TJ

haha I work with these guys. awesome

Posted at 12:17 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by JackVandaL

that was a good one TJ! ^^

Posted at 12:27 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by deadeye

“floorboards of the card.” er car.

Posted at 12:44 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by jon

I like gomi’s idea, although controlling formations might be hard. If they’re perfectly in sync, a 90degree turn would turn a convoy into a 5 lane wall of unmaned car.

Posted at 12:57 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by k0ldBurn

a full-sized RC car is one project that’s been on my list for a long time.

though ideally I’d want to do it such that it looks un-hacked from the outside and can still be driven normally.

throttle can likely be handled by tapping into the cruise control actuator, a secondary electronically controlled master cylinder can handle the braking. As for steering the best I could come up with is to simply hide a gear driven motor in the dash attached to the column, but I’m not so sure… depending on the car you might be able to fit such an apparatus in the engine-bay even.

that just leaves the transmission, they have fully electronically controlled automatics, but no cheap car has those… the best bet might be to find one with an external shift linkage and simply throw an actuator under the car to get it working.

Posted at 1:10 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by twistedsymphony

When i saw the picture i just had to think of mythbusters xD

Posted at 1:15 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by stealthmonkey

@twistedsymphony

My ‘97 intrepid(which could be had for well under a grand) has and electronically controlled tranny. Chrysler calls it autostick, you can choose the gears like in a manual. The stick position doesn’t mechanically connect to the tranny, there is a switch somewhere. All you would need to do it tap into it. And of course need some way to shift out of park into drive…since it wont start in drive. A servo maybe.

Posted at 1:32 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by Fallen

WHERE was that girl when i was taking my electronic circuits labs???!!!

Posted at 1:47 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by samurai

@samurai Exactly! was wondering the same thing.

Posted at 1:58 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by Barney

To those wondering how to shift, steer, brake, etc:

AEVIT is a solution used by many DARPA teams. AEVIT by EMC is one of those ‘adaptave mobility control’ devices for disabled and wheelchair bound to drive. In essence there’s a computer screen with the main controls (start, park, drive, etc) and a control ‘panel’ in your lap or mounted in the vehicle for gas/brake and steering.

DARPA teams just tap into the AEVIT/EMC system for their control. And the nice thing is it’s fairly unobtrusive. There’s a giant black unit under the steering wheel to ’set’ the system and align the wheel with the servos and such, and then down by the pedals is another box with the actuators for brake and gas. A regular person can also use the system – just don’t “enable” it when the car’s turned on and it won’t work.

Posted at 2:26 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by Dakota

Yeah, the helmet will help… Dork!

Posted at 2:35 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by Ponti

“LOOK AT ME, I’M THE WORLDS SMARTEST DUMBASS!!”

Posted at 3:23 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by HIrudinea

at least kirov didn’t complain about this not being a hack, it is incredibly dangerous though, but a decent hack to be sure.

*coughkirovsanasscough*

Posted at 3:45 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by vikki

it would have been a whole lot better if they used a wii fit board as the steering on the roof :)

Posted at 4:05 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by soze

love the pot description; chances are if ur going to remote control ur car u know what a pot is…derp

Posted at 5:55 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by tempestion

“Brake! Brake! AAAAAH!”

Posted at 5:55 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by Patrick

It looks like they just re-purposed the parts from this year’s First competition robot after they were done with it…. Seriously, almost everything that they used was in the kit of parts for FIRST this year.

Posted at 7:06 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by Jduffy

I love it, but where the heck do you find an area big enough to test it without risking hitting something (assuming you don’t live near the salt flats)…

Posted at 8:57 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by Technology Nerd

*coughvikkihastoomuchtimeonhishandsandisstalkingmecouhg*

Posted at 9:10 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by kirov

It’d be nice if someone used a Wii balance board to drive the car :)

Posted at 9:17 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by Gean

absolutely awesome. i am doing this, blacking out all my windows and becoming a real backseat driver. can’t wait for the cops to pull me over.

Posted at 10:58 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by Matt Ward

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJDLRCXR2ZM

Now stop, stop, stop, stop
Now go, go, go, go
Get out your car, get out your car,
let it roll, let it roll, let it roll, let it roll

Posted at 11:44 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by Oakland

While it would be a stupid stint, but it’s fun imagining pulling it off. Put a big dog in the driver’s seat, while you are in back doing the driving. With my “powers wheels” the power was me pedaling as fast as I could. Dead man’s switches would be a good idea, as would be a big rig like “maxi brake” concoction that would apply the brakes, while cutting the ignition as a deadman’s switch is tripped. Several years ago my dad was putting togeter an oil well servicing rig. The truck’s throttle had to be controlled from 3 differant locations outide the cab throttle. In the old days they use air to to operate a ccyliner under the hood. The throttle by wire on the new computer controlled diesels posed a kink to work out. I suggested a thoratl position sensor at each location, using a switch to select the one needed. Bt those sensors where expensive, and the ended up using an air cylinder under the dash to operate the thottle in the cab. Thinking about it, there is a lot of stuff used in the oil patch that could be useful in robotic control. I think the pot segment in the video was about getting someone’s attractive gal on tape. Mike *I* approve of this post.

Posted at 1:39 am on Nov 11th, 2009 by Doug

When I read “Power Wheels” I thought.

Oh, that must be some technical word for something really cool, surely not some little kid’s toy…

But when I saw the Power Wheels logo on the Wikipedia page I knew I was wrong…

Posted at 1:51 am on Nov 11th, 2009 by Sammy

With a compact rio I’d bloody well hope you could RC a car! Still, nice implementation.

Posted at 4:54 am on Nov 11th, 2009 by James

@Jduffy you’re exactly right, we did use a lot of the FIRST kit.

We didn’t exactly have a DARPA budget. We did the project for ~$1000 including purchasing the car and paying for a trailer on which to tow the truck to the testing site.

Posted at 4:57 am on Nov 11th, 2009 by John Boiles

I can’t wait to hear about these on (place anagram of your favorite news station here) when they’re used to driving in living breathing targets…

I’m sure you’ve heard it before… but here it is… It’s always fun until someone gets hurt… Stupidity can be, and often is, painful–just ask the winners of the Darwin Awards.

Posted at 5:35 am on Nov 11th, 2009 by Munky

@John Boiles – I presume you’re not including the compact rio and software in that budget (as that’d add a zero to your costings last time I checked the price of a CRio and a few modules!)

Posted at 10:58 am on Nov 11th, 2009 by James

AWW MAN I JUST SPENT ALL DAY STACKING THOSE BOXES!!!!

Posted at 11:08 am on Nov 11th, 2009 by roshamboe

@James – Correct, most of the guys (except for me) work for National Instruments so we had access to the cRIO, LabView, FIRST robotics kits for free. However, the cRIO isn’t doing anything too fancy. Someone with some microcontroller/electronics experience could replace the cRIO for <$100.

Posted at 2:04 pm on Nov 11th, 2009 by John Boiles

ive seen many people do it like that and i really dont understand why you would interface with the trottle pedal? it would reqire loads more power and more sofisticated equipment than just a servo attached to the carburettor….
oh well ..

Posted at 4:48 am on Nov 12th, 2009 by bullzebub

“As we turn the knob…”
I here you girl!

Posted at 11:19 am on Nov 12th, 2009 by Godi

Great, how long will it be until we see our first remote car bomb?

Dummy in the front seat, ton of explosives in the back. I bet the military is testing dozens of ways to detect and jam these rigs.

Posted at 7:14 pm on Nov 12th, 2009 by Lee

@John – Of course it could, I was just pointing out that that would take some time and effort and control with the Rio is a bit of a short-cut using industrial control hardware – still a fun project I’d love to do, but maybe I’m being a bit purist by suggesting it would be more “worthy” somehow if it were done from the ground up rather than bolt-in solutions.

@bullzebub – yup, would be much much simpler to make up a bracket for the throttle butterfly, though its hot, vibrating and unpleasant under the bonnet for non-auto grade components, I think thats the only reason I can see for not controlling at the throttle.

Posted at 8:25 am on Nov 13th, 2009 by James

“Great, how long will it be until we see our first remote car bomb?

Dummy in the front seat, ton of explosives in the back. I bet the military is testing dozens of ways to detect and jam these rigs.”

Posted at 7:14 pm on Nov 12th, 2009 by Lee
_____________________________

^ Why would the bombers go to the trouble? People are cheaper…

Posted at 12:55 pm on Nov 15th, 2009 by Hitek146

next rich kid’s game , drive a car in the comfort off your seat and earn points by hitting people.

Posted at 3:20 pm on Nov 15th, 2009 by Xtremegamer