[Chet] is showing off the Bluetooth controller upgrade for this RC car. The donor vehicle is a rather inexpensive Porche which he purchased to make sure he didn’t start hacking up his more expensive toys.
He took a bit different route than the IOIO RC truck we saw earlier in the week, but the concept is basically the same. That build used an IOIO board with a USB Bluetooth dongle. This one uses an Arduino Mini with a serial Bluetooth module. He patched into the motor driver circuits on the original PCB. While he was at it he also soldered in some LEDs to use as switchable headlights.
There was one issue which he had to overcome. The current draw from the motor starting up would sometimes dip the voltage low enough to reset the Arduino. He tried using a bigger capacitor to feed the board, but in the end opted to add a boost converter.
That looks like a nano, not a mini.
Would this be possible with a ATTINY85 and a bluetooth module?
To get reliable serial comms from an attiny85 you really need a xtal which would take up some pins so you’d need some way to add extra IO, but yeah, it would work
include a seperate battery “just for the uC”
and if you make it rechargeable, and make it recharge from the main battery (while on)
then it wont go dead for years, and can be really small and lightweight.
(assuming power to BOTH packs is turned on and off together with one switch)
That’s far more complicated than i had wanted to do. If adding a battery i’d probably replace the the AA’s with something bigger and better.
The little boost converter i put in is quite a neat solution and are pretty good for the money.
What kind of range do you get using bluetooth? what are the major advantages? -thanks -d
WHOA — this is almost exactly what I was trying to do this weekend! Except I’m gonna dump the original PCB and am building my own H bridge controllers