Radio control is good and all, and it’s always fun to watch a little vehicle scoot about the backyard. But there’s always something to be said for feeling as though you’re really in control. First person view, or FPV, is the way to do it, and [Brian] has gone down that route with this tidy tank build.
The tank is 3D printed, from the chassis right down to the wheels. There’s even a moving “eye” up front containing the FPV camera, controlled by a servo, allowing the driver to look up and down. A 5.8 GHz transmitter is used to send the signal back to the driver’s goggles. The tracks are a snap-together design that are fully 3D printed, requiring no additional metal links or hardware. Forward propulsion is courtesy of a pair of 12 volt gear motors, driven from an L298N motor driver. An Arduino Nano is used in conjunction with Spektrum RC gear to receive signals and tell the tank where to go.
It’s a tidy build that would be great fun to drive through the bushes or through the house. We’ve seen even tinier builds used to inspect crawlspaces. If you build one of your own, be sure to let us know.
Nice job. A robot mower briefly appears at 6:00; It was the perfect time to show the tank’s battle worthiness. But the close encounter ended peacefully. :)
Not quite that peaceful, it drove over it twice 😅
But where’s the skill in that? You’ve just pressed “print” and assembled some plastic parts like a Lego Duplo toy.
Yeah and the design appeared from thin air on my computer 🙄
Didn’t you know?! Everything on a computer is easy and therefore unworthy. All those so called writers, architects, artists, engineers, developers, accountants… worthless!
The only people who are truly worthy are those who make things from the land around themselves with their own bodies. Were you going to make a stone hand axe by knapping flint with another stone? You’re so unworthy, you must bite the flint into shape with your creative teeth.
For the sarcastically challenged: less than forward slash sarcasm greater than.
So where’s the beef? Nowhere is there shown any first person video thru the tanks eye. Just random video of it driving around.
Very nice design/build. Of course the video makes it look very “easy”, but I can imagine quite some iterations were needed to make everything fit/work like intended.
I like the fact that the tracks are larger than the body. Could even make it flip over if the antenna was mounted differently. Can we have some on-board footage as well?