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RC car robotics with a Raspberry Pi

By Russell Barnes. Posted

RC car robotics with a Raspberry Pi

This fantastic guide to turning a cheap shop-bought RC toy into a robotic car is a great way to learn about hot-wiring electronics

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The only thing more fun than a remote control (RC) car is one you've turned into a robot thanks to Raspberry Pi.

This fantastic guide to turning a cheap shop-bought RC toy into a robotic car is a great way to learn about hot-wiring electronics. Christopher Doyle walks you through his process.

Turn an RC car into Raspberry Pi robot

Christopher guts the remote control innards and installs an L298n motor driver and Raspberry Pi.

The car is controlled using Python scripts passed to the Raspberry Pi via VNC Server. So technically it's still remote controlled. But in a much cooler way.

"What I've done is cut out the microcontroller", says Christopher. "I replaced it with ml298 and motor driver " 

"I'm controlling that with this Raspberry Pi," explains Christopher, "which has a Wi-Fi dongle which sends the signal from a VNC server up to my Macbook Pro."

 

Russell Barnes photo

Russell runs Raspberry Pi Press, which includes The MagPi, Hello World, HackSpace magazine, and book projects. He’s a massive sci-fi bore.

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