matthew_77

I need some help with building a remote control car. I have experience driving car and flying helos, but not building either. First, I am not trying to build a car to race it or am I trying to build a conventional car. I am going to design my own chassis I need help with connecting the motor, tires, radio, etc. For example, when the people used to build the little robots for Robot Wars, the would take RC parts and make crazy robots and cars. They did not buy robot kits and then just enter them in the competitions. I am not trying to build one of those robots, but I am trying to give everyone an idea of what kind of direction I am going in. If anyone knows of a good book that, website, etc that is basically a RC school, that would help a lot.

devin4444

iTrader: (3)

What type of car.

matthew_77

The link below will kind of give you an idea of where I am going. It looks like he made his own chassis and then he added the RC parts and the motors and tires. For example (I don' expect anyone to answer these questions I am just looking for a good starting point for this info) can you connect the tires directly to the engine of is a "transmission" needed. How are the tires directly connected to the motor. What kind of RC board and transmitter do you need. Most of this stuff comes in a kit if I am building a standard RC car, but I am not.

http://manufacturing.cadalyst.com/ma...ts-figure2.jpg

Dave H

Matthew, for what you are apparently trying, I would recommend checking out on road 12th scale pan car drivelines and parts. They are fairly simple, and easy to mount. Solid axle. The axle and motor are not in line, but are right next to each other with just one pair of gears. You do need some gear reduction in my opinion, to generate torque and reduce the speed to a manageable level. And they include a differential, to help turning. But no actual transmission to deal with. I have seen guys build one offs this way before. Easy to make tandem axle trucks, for example.

Associated has been building 12th scale cars in various iterations since 1978 or so I think it is, have sold a ton of them over the years. Point being, it should be real easy to either pick up some used ones to part out, and/or parts are readily available at just about any hobby shop there is. Check out their site, it has all of the various manuals, which include exploded views and stuff to help ya out.

www.teamassociated.com Good Luck. Oh, and for payback you are now required to post pictures of your result!

matthew_77

I have been looking around the internet and I have found a lot of great information, and I also have found a few books that I am going to buy. I still have one question. If I build a car and can I use a airplane controller, assuming that I have the correct crystal, or will this not work.

Dave H

When you say controller, do you mean receiver, or speed controller/ESC?

You could use an airplane speed controller I guess. The crystal wouldn't be an issue. The crystal goes on the receiver, not the speed controller. The problem I suspect you would have, is that I don't think airplane speed controllers have brakes.

If you mean the receiver, part of the radio control: Seems like it would work to a point, but I think I read somewhere long ago and far away that the range isn't that great, designed to be away from reflecting surfaces or something. Oh, and it would violate FCC regs for what it's worth.

matthew_77

Dave, when I use the word "controller" I mean radio. I am not using the correct terminology. The reason I wan tot use an aircraft controller is because the vehicle I want to make is going to have tank-like steering. To turn left right control forward, left control back. Are there specific radios built for tanks?

Dave H

OK. No problem, they make stick style controllers for ground use. Very popular in the UK, and possibly Europe, not sure.

Some guy from Japan uses one, and he has won I think it's 14 World Championships, Masami Hirosaka! He uses a KO PROPO, excellent stuff.

I'm pretty sure that Futaba has them as well.

I'm not sure if any of them go past 4 channels though. My guess is you might want more, which fly radios frequently have?

Dave H

Oh, and Airtronics also has one. Also an excellent brand.

matthew_77

I had just noticed one of your previous post saying that airplane freqs can not be used for ground models. I found the link below that talks a little bit about it. But, basically is it saying that feqs set aside for airplanes cannot be used for cars, or bots? Why is this?

http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/rc-...equencies.html

Dave H

Mattew, I'm not sure about the airplane vs. car frequency thing. I thought I read something about this many years ago, that airplane stuff didn't work all that well on the ground, didn't have very good range around obstacles and stuff, But remember I'm not really sure. And I know that the FCC sets aside different sets of frequencies, but again not sure of all of the details. I wouldn't recommend flouting the law, but seriously I don't think they are gong to come and take you in the middle of the night or anything! Just tell them you are practicing taxiing!

Suggest you try to find a local hobby shop with some experienced fly guys, or try calling/emailing one or more of the radio companies, if nobody here chimes in. I'm sure it would work for the most part, they do taxi their planes on the ground, right?

matthew_77

Is it possible to get a radio (controller) with as many channels as the ones for airplanes? Also, I was going to use some of the parts from a inexpensive RC car from a toy store for parts. The problem is that there is only a range of 60 ft, is there a way to increase the signal strength. I am not looking for 250 ft, but just a little further than 60ft.