Introduction: How to Make RC Car at Home With Old RC Bike Parts and an Empty Filament Spool

By letsmakeprojects.com
About: Founder of letsmakeprojects.com...Sciency Guy who always try to make innovative projects,check out what i made in my instructable..

Hey friends in this instructables we will see how I converted my RC bike that was abandoned to a fully working RC Car.

This is a project that gives the OLD Radio controlled toys a second chance! Yeah everyone deserves a second chance so my RC Bike was modified into a car.

The interesting part is most of the parts used for this project were upcycled in some way, The wheels are made from empty filament spools

The circuit is from OLD RC bike and the main frame is from packing cardboard, Whatever it might be this car works just fine and you can play it on the outdoors and have fun.

From the images above you can see even it can move like a crab sideways!

This car is similar to a regular Radio controlled car and it can move, Front and back, Right and left with 2 different throttle speed.

It comes with a 4000mah battery pack so you need to worry about the playtime, the main reason for this project was i had my old rc bike lying in my drawer for almost 2 years, I had thought of dumping it but an idea flashed to build this project.

You can also use circuit from old rc car too, since when it comes to electronics all the vehicles work almost the same, if also add a working video in the end don't forget to check that out.

Supplies

I will be using spools of PLA filament that measured 20cms in diameter as wheels in this project

  • Empty filament spools x2
  • Pieces of cardboard
  • BO Motor( Also called as hobby motor)
  • Wheels of bo motor(rubber and plastic version)
  • Old RC bike(Even car also works fine)
  • Lithium ion battery holder
  • Batteriesx2
  • Hot glue
  • Screw driver set to disassemble the RC Bike
  • Wires if motor are not soldered
  • Transmitter that i got along with old rc bike

Step 1: Preparing the Base

Base is the real deal in this project as it has to carry the load of all spools, I layered 2 cardboard sheets to ensure the base is strong.

Use a sufficient amount of hot glue and sandwich the 2 pieces, You can also use more but 2 is more than enough for this project.

Now we will see how to convert the spools into wheels, Usually,

the spools are joined together by a thick piece of cardboard disc at the center.

With some force you will be able to separate the spools into 2 parts, and remove the cardboard from the center.

Add a few drops of hot glue to the sides of the cardboard and place the BO motors, gently press and hold the motor to ensure it glues well to the base.

I'm using motors that were already soldered with wires, if yours does not have any wires solder the wires first and later proceed with the steps

Step 2: Adding Motor and Wheels

After the glue is dried completely on the motor we can add the wheels, These wheels are huge compared to what we usually see.

I did a lot of research regarding the attachment that will connect the BO motor shaft to these wheels, I could not find any

I thought of 3d printing this anyways, but since most of you will be trying to build this project so i found a better alternative! Using a BO motor wheel is a real problem solver.

Add hot glue to the surface of the spool like i did and carefully place the BO motor on top of this, Press and hold for few seconds until the glue is dry.

Now you can add these wheels to the shaft of the hobby motor, Since I'm using the press fit type of attachment there is no need of any glue to join this.

If you are using screw type, tighten the screws


Step 3: Scavenging Parts From Rc Bike

You know that most of the RC car stops working because of spoiled dc motor and most of them find it difficult to replace the motor so they just take out all the parts and use it for some other project.

In my case, I got a circuit board in a very neat condition since i was not using my RC bike that much and even if i did i was using it very lightly.

Here to the circuit board lots of wires will be connected, Dont worry start to disconnect the motors first later other parts.

In the end, we only need the circuit board, While removing make a note that if you are new to this mark the wires that are connected to motor with markers so that later it will easy in making the connections.

Step 4: Circuit

The circuit is pretty much easy if you have disassembled any radio controlled toys before, But anyways here i will explain the circuit for you guys.

The RC bike circuit board had terminals for 2 led lights which is removed since it did not served any purpose in our current project.

The important part was the terminals of port that will be used for forward and backward control and also for sideways control.

Connect the dc motors to the front and back port first and note that here both the motor should be connected in parallel.

Now for the sideways we are following the series method of motor connections, here make sure the motor terminals are marked prior making connections

This completes the circuit connection for this rc car, if you still have any questions you can check video given at the end of this project

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Step 5: Assembling the Components

The most important thing in every radio-controlled device is battery backup, If you have had RC toys like a car or truck you know that after playing with them for some time the battery drains out, Again you should recharge the battery before using it and you have to wait which everyone hates.

I have found a solution! I used 2 lithium-ion batteries which give out 4000mah and 7.4v, These are pretty decent and give a very good backup time until you are bored.

Add the batteries and to control the power I used a switch from the earlier RC bike.

After you add the switch power on the circuit and see if everything is fine, It should be fine if you follow above steps, Now its the time to use this car and check what it is capable of

Step 6: Working

To start this RC car all you need is to power on the battery, Start by powering the RC car switch and follow by the transmitter button.

The device needs to be paired so at the beginning you will see the red light flashing on the transmitter.

Allow a couple of seconds and now the car will be paired and ready to be used, start by gently pushing the forward button on the remote/transmitter, the car will move forward, similarly do it for the backward and car goes back.

With just a simple press of button the car moves to a large distance and all thanks goes to the big wheels.

The interesting part is moving sideways, Though it has some difficulties in moving sideways in the rough surfaces but it moves like a carb when you use this on tiles floor.

This was all about making this amazing car and giving a rc bike part a second chance, Thanks for reading.

Step 7: Video

Here is the complete build of this project shown as a video tutorial, so if you think you missed any steps above you can just watch this video and get things sorted out, also you can see the working of this car.

Hope you will do this project if you have some unused old rc toys like me, Thank you all and keep learning something new.