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Choosing How To Run Your Radio Controlled Car

If you are building a radio controlled car, you will be faced with choices every step of the way. You will have to decide how to build the model, how to incorporate the radio transmitter, and how you want to paint it. You will also have to decide how you want to power your car. There are several different choices, and unfortunately there isn’t one that stands out as better than the rest. Each powering method has its own benefits and tradeoffs that may affect your decision. You will have to consider these benefits compared with what exactly you want to do with your car. Here are the three main ways that you can power a radio controlled car.

The first and most basic way to power a remote controlled car is to have a battery pack running the motors.  This is the kind of system that you will see in beginning cars. If implemented correctly, it can be fairly effective. Its main strong point is that it is very light. Cars using electric power can reach all new levels of lightness. However, like all of the options, there is a tradeoff: electric cars are the slowest of them all. So, you will have to decide whether you want a light car that handles well, or a speed demon that will tear up the competition. And that brings us to the next choice, which is definitely a bit speedier than the electric option.

Gas-powered cars are by far the most common when you are looking at hobby grade cars. The equipment required to handle all of the gas and combustion weighs quite a bit, and tends to make the car less agile. However, it makes up for this deficiency by being one the fastest choices. These types of motor kits are very easy to find. If you want one for your car, your best bet would be to look in some online specialty shops, or your local hobby shop. While it is not necessarily a positive aspect in my book, the fact that the cars are much louder when they run on gasoline seems to attract some people, who enjoy creating the noisy little machines.

RC cars that run on nitro gasoline are quickly becoming the most popular and fastest growing segment of remote control cars. Nitro vehicles can come in many different forms. You can build the popular and durable trucks that will take jumps at high speeds and go on off road driving courses. Alternatively, if you are trying to reach very high speeds, you can build the type of racecar that is meant to speed along pavement, tracks or other prepared surfaces. As with gas, nitro requires the heavy motor equipment that some people find cumbersome. However, they are perfect if you want to swap out your electric motor during a race or other event.

If you build your car the right way and avoid attaching the engine in permanently, you can switch whenever you feel a different one would be more appropriate. The average remote control enthusiast will accumulate quite a few different engines over the years, and will become familiar with which ones are best to use in a given situation. So don’t worry too much about buying the wrong engine and being “stuck” with something that you didn’t want. Just consider the pros and cons of each one, and compare them with your goals with your remote control car project. Think about how much speed you want, compared to how much agility or how much turning speed. If you have a local hobby store that stocks all of the different types of engines, then go in and ask to test drive a few of them to get a feel for the type of engine. You will be glad that you put so much thought into it.

Radio Control Hobbies

Wii Nunchuk Controller – White

• Motion sensor function (3 axes)
• Two buttons – C, Z
• Uses the communication function of the Wii Remote Control
• Size(LxWxD) – 4.45 x 1.5 x 1.48 (113 x 38.2 x 37.5 mm)

Wii Nunchuk Controller. Connect the Nunchuk controller to the Wii Remote and get ready. The Nunchuk controller and the accelerometer contained within it are the next leap in gaming. In first-person shooters, the controller carries the burden of movement, freeing you to aim and fire using a more natural motion with the Wii Remote. In a football game, you can make your quarterback elusive with the Nunchuk controller while you look for an open receiver to throw to using the Wii Remote.The Wii Nunchuk controller is a secondary controller that adds even more innovation to the next generation of gaming, and does it all with less physical movement.

Used in conjunction with the standard Wii remote, certain games need the Nunchuk controller for additional control options. Contoured perfectly to fit a player’s hand,

The Wii Nunchuk (left) connects directly to the Wii remote. View larger.

the Nunchuk controller builds on the simplicity of the Wii Remote controller. The Nunchuk contains the same three-axis motion sensor found in the Wii Remote, but also includes an analog stick, and two buttons to help assist in character movement.

Many games will allow you to control your character’s movement with the Nunchuk in your left hand, while your right hand is free to execute the action movements with the Wii Remote. For example, the Nunchuk is particularly useful for games like Wii Boxing. You can use the Nunchuk to punch with your weaker hand, while you use the Wii remote to punch and jab with your predominant hand.

Take the fun to the next level with two-handed control of your games. View larger.

In first-person shooters, the Nunchuk controller carries the burden of movement, freeing you to aim and fire using a more natural motion with the Wii Remote. In a football game, you can make your quarterback elusive with the Nunchuk controller while you search for an open receiver to throw to using the Wii Remote. Serious gamers may even want to use two Nunchuk controllers to gain a fierce competitive edge.

Because the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers are only relatively dependent on each other, players are free to hold them in whichever hand is most comfortable. Perfectly suitable for either right or left-hand use, the Wii Nunchuk controller grants accessibility not often seen in previous game controllers.

Also, the Nunchuk controller doesn’t need its own power–it plugs into the Wii Remote controller when it’s in use. So there’s no need to worry about charging or replacing expensive batteries.

Adding a Nunchuk to your Wii system will definitely help you open the doors to the next level of gaming, and seriously step up performance. Just be careful not to knock out your significant other, or bruise the dog, severely, while using one, or two Nunchuk controllers.

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List Price: $ 19.99

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Silverfish Control: The Ultimate Guide to Get Rid of Silverfish
Silverfish Control: The Ultimate Guide to Get Rid of Silverfish is an ebook that explains how to get rid of silverfish naturally and permanently without using pesticides or chemicals.
Silverfish Control: The Ultimate Guide to Get Rid of Silverfish

This video will show you how to mod your controller. Send a message if you have any questions. PS I got all my supplies at radioshack. Rosin-core solder, mini screwdriver, wire, momentary push-button. Those four total about -. And yes, the normal trigger still works like it always used to, a plain old trigger. PPS I’m sorry, but i had to remove the comments, cuz people were putting some stupid stuff up there. And I am not responsible for any damage done to you or your controller. Enjoy.

Strobe controller

Image by AMagill
My strobe controller project finally got soldered up in a nice project case. In short, it’s a programmable strobe controller for high-speed photography. You can load it with simple scripts to (usually) wait for a certain input condition, and then switch the outputs with very precise timing.
One particularly elaborate example: Have it trigger an electronic water valve for a few milliseconds, just long enough to let one drop of water through. Wait until it sees a drop fall through a photogate, and then open the shutter on the camera. Wait until the contact mic under a bowl is triggered by the drop impacting on the bowl, fire the flash, wait a few milliseconds, and then close the shutter on the camera. Perfect water drop pictures every time.

I bought a Koala protoboard, a matching case, and a compatible LiPoly battery from Sparkfun, plus a whole bunch of 3.5mm headphone jacks and some other odds and ends from JB Saunders, and soldered it up last weekend.
The board is pretty cool- it comes with USB-serial (an FTDI FT232R, regulated 3.3V and 5V from battery or USB, and battery charging from USB. The battery is tucked under the board.
Everything is wired into a TI EZ430-RF2500 target board (I really only wanted the MSP430-F2274 micro on it; the wireless is going to waste at the moment). It communicates with a desktop app I’ve written in C#, where you can see and control its status in real-time, write scripts, and send them to the device. I’ve created a simple little scripting language (and corresponding bytecode language) so the device can do interesting and precisely-timed things with its outputs (the five jacks on bottom) in reaction to stuff happening on its inputs (the button and the two other jacks). It needs some polish still, but it really works quite well.

I’ll do a proper writeup on my website when I’m closer to being truly done.