Rookie243

Hey all I am a Rookie to the RC thing as a whole. But I am working on a RC type project for my personal use. Can someone help me? I want to know if I can remotely control an 18V cordless drill motor forward and reverse. I want ti to operate somewhat like a tank would two joysticks, controlling two motors forward and reverse. Can anyone tell me the most cost effective way to do this and make it hold up for a period time? I need the high torque drill motors cause i will be adding some weight to the top of the buggy... any help or links to follow would be great thanks in advance for all the help...

Neu_Racer

iTrader: (211)

Welcome to the world of RC!
Interesting this is your first project but I wish you luck.

I have no links to provide but you may want to check out the Titan 775 motors that come on the Summit and/or brushless 550 cans. The 775 motors should be cheaper, you know they're made for what you're trying to do (kind of!) and they are everywhere.

Brushless would be better and depending on a budget you could get a super low KV 1521 Neu motor or something with a ton of torque or a Chinese version.
Definitely post pics when you're done. I'm interested!

superblackfoot

I couple of years back a guy at the local r/c track was building something simular using a 19.2 cordless drill motor and battery. I asked him the same question about how he going to control direction and told me that he was going to use mechanical speed control but just could not find one and luckely I had one on me and I just gave it to him. They can be found on older r/c type vehicals and are relatively cheap. Good luck would like to see it when done

G33Kster

iTrader: (11)

If you want to control 2 drill motors with tank drive, it shouldn't be too hard. You will need an aircraft-style transmitter (one that can do vertical motion on both joysticks) and receiver. To control each motor, you will need a brushed speed controller (brushed ESC) for each. You shouldn't need to worry about the turn rating on the ESC too much because drill motors have high turns anyway (ESCs are limited in turns because a motor with fewer turns has a lower internal resistance). Something like a Traxxas XL-5 or Duratrax Sprint/Sprint 2 should do fine if you run within their voltage specs, but there are plenty of other cheap options out there. You may have a hard time finding a reasonably priced brushed ESC that can handle 18V. You will plug the signal wire from each ESC into the proper channel on the receiver so that the joystick motions you want control the ESCs (this is trial and error I think). However, on the signal wire from one ESC, you need to cut or disconnect the red wire. The red wire supplies power to the receiver and if you have 2 ESCs, both supplying power, the receiver will go poof. With the remaining channels on the receiver, you can plug in servos, etc.
Hope this helps

RockHoundRC

Lots of cool stuff here:

robotcombat.com

Dave H

Another source for motor drivers/controllers, including several that are dual channel, made for just what it appears you are trying to do:

http://dimensionengineering.com/index.html

Look at the Motor Drivers, Sabertooth with the 2X in the listing. The descriptions include general weight guidelines, specs include Voltage limits. Better to go too big than too small.

I see the robotcombat site mentioned includes some of these, and lots of other options too, interesting site.