Archer fans already know, but for the rest of the world it bears saying – boats are fine, but fan boats are better. It’s much the same with land vehicles, too. [tinkeringtech] felt the same way, and built a Bluetooth-controlled fan car to scoot around the floor. (YouTube, embedded below.)
Construction starts with a series of popsticks glued together to create a chassis. Twist ties are then used to act as axles for bottle cap wheels, while steering is handled by a cardboard rudder controlled by a servo. Propulsion is via a pair of pager-sized motors fitted with fans. An Adafruit Bluefruit Feather M0 runs the show, receiving commands over Bluetooth and driving the motors through an H-bridge chip in the center of the vehicle.
It’s a fun craft-style build that would be a great project for kids interested in electronics and making. It teaches basic electronics, as well as serving as a good introduction into the world of microcontrollers. It’s one of the smaller radio-controlled builds we’ve seen, but you can always go full-scale if that takes your fancy.
It just needs a windmill generator on the front to power the fans and controller!
Dont advocate things like that, it’ll cause cancer…..
Free energy!!
Put the same electronics on a cheap foam glider, and have an RC plane! (Didn’t watch the video; might have too much latency for flight control…)
Is there a word for this style of YouTube video? There are many similar ones where they seem to convey the idea that these things are just so simple.
I must live in a different world because the reality for me is that it would take several iterations and many hours of adjustment to get it to work. And while I’m adjusting the paper clips to get the wheels to work, the hot glued motors would fall off the paddle pop sticks, and then the frame would break.
I don’t believe the narrative.