Hackable toy car
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A friend came over, with kids, to the house today and the kids had a
tiny R/C car that had "PLEASE hack me" written all over it. The car is only
2.5 by 4.5 inches and comes with a 4.8V nicad battery pack and charger that
fills up in ten minutes flat.
The front wheels are fixed, yet the two rear are differential drive.
The controller has just two fwd/rev levers. The car comes with a light, for
what that's worth to us. It's really fast and spins in place like a madman.
They've had it for two months now of continuous use and it hasn't broken
yet, so the durability and obvious quality are both good.
Being knee-deep in other projects, I can't do anything to explore this,
and since it isn't mine, I can't take it apart. The battery pack snaps in
the back of the car neatly and the compactness of the entire package
impressed me. Looking inside the front fenders by the wheels I can see a
bunch of TO-92 transistors that appears to be an H bridge.
Oops, forgot the car name! Tyco makes it and the label on the car reads
"Racin' Ratz" and I was told it cost less than twenty bucks. I imagine that
a stamp would fit right on top of the circuit board. I think that the top
of the body would have to be cut off to get anything else in there besides
the original circuitry, as it looks really tight in there. I'm guessing
that the motors are next to each other and have ring and pinion drive. On
carpet, it drove really straight, so the motors and drivers halves must be
matched pretty closely together.
Thought I'd pass this along!
Okay, just as I was about to send this out, my daughter got her hair
wrapped up in a wheel, so it had to be taken apart attached to her head to
free as much hair as possible. Four screws and the top comes right off, and
doesn't need to be attached unless you want to keep the lights. Everything
else is in the base. Very sweet piece of engineering.
tiny R/C car that had "PLEASE hack me" written all over it. The car is only
2.5 by 4.5 inches and comes with a 4.8V nicad battery pack and charger that
fills up in ten minutes flat.
The front wheels are fixed, yet the two rear are differential drive.
The controller has just two fwd/rev levers. The car comes with a light, for
what that's worth to us. It's really fast and spins in place like a madman.
They've had it for two months now of continuous use and it hasn't broken
yet, so the durability and obvious quality are both good.
Being knee-deep in other projects, I can't do anything to explore this,
and since it isn't mine, I can't take it apart. The battery pack snaps in
the back of the car neatly and the compactness of the entire package
impressed me. Looking inside the front fenders by the wheels I can see a
bunch of TO-92 transistors that appears to be an H bridge.
Oops, forgot the car name! Tyco makes it and the label on the car reads
"Racin' Ratz" and I was told it cost less than twenty bucks. I imagine that
a stamp would fit right on top of the circuit board. I think that the top
of the body would have to be cut off to get anything else in there besides
the original circuitry, as it looks really tight in there. I'm guessing
that the motors are next to each other and have ring and pinion drive. On
carpet, it drove really straight, so the motors and drivers halves must be
matched pretty closely together.
Thought I'd pass this along!
Okay, just as I was about to send this out, my daughter got her hair
wrapped up in a wheel, so it had to be taken apart attached to her head to
free as much hair as possible. Four screws and the top comes right off, and
doesn't need to be attached unless you want to keep the lights. Everything
else is in the base. Very sweet piece of engineering.
Comments
That was very interesting both technically as well as funny everyday life
stuff.
20 bucks for all that engineering and manufacturing is the scary part for
me.
Mark
Original Message
From: Carl McIver <cmciver@m...>
To: basicstamps@egroups.com <basicstamps@egroups.com>
Date: Saturday, September 16, 2000 8:48 AM
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Hackable toy car
> A friend came over, with kids, to the house today and the kids had a
>tiny R/C car that had "PLEASE hack me" written all over it. The car is
only
>2.5 by 4.5 inches and comes with a 4.8V nicad battery pack and charger that
>fills up in ten minutes flat.
> The front wheels are fixed, yet the two rear are differential drive.
>The controller has just two fwd/rev levers. The car comes with a light,
for
>what that's worth to us. It's really fast and spins in place like a
madman.
>They've had it for two months now of continuous use and it hasn't broken
>yet, so the durability and obvious quality are both good.
> Being knee-deep in other projects, I can't do anything to explore this,
>and since it isn't mine, I can't take it apart. The battery pack snaps in
>the back of the car neatly and the compactness of the entire package
>impressed me. Looking inside the front fenders by the wheels I can see a
>bunch of TO-92 transistors that appears to be an H bridge.
> Oops, forgot the car name! Tyco makes it and the label on the car
reads
>"Racin' Ratz" and I was told it cost less than twenty bucks. I imagine
that
>a stamp would fit right on top of the circuit board. I think that the top
>of the body would have to be cut off to get anything else in there besides
>the original circuitry, as it looks really tight in there. I'm guessing
>that the motors are next to each other and have ring and pinion drive. On
>carpet, it drove really straight, so the motors and drivers halves must be
>matched pretty closely together.
>
> Thought I'd pass this along!
>
> Okay, just as I was about to send this out, my daughter got her hair
>wrapped up in a wheel, so it had to be taken apart attached to her head to
>free as much hair as possible. Four screws and the top comes right off,
and
>doesn't need to be attached unless you want to keep the lights. Everything
>else is in the base. Very sweet piece of engineering.
>
>
>
>
>
it says that it is made by Mattel and costs $40. Just FYI. Here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004SW3T/103-3139862-0934249
*Brian
> > Oops, forgot the car name! Tyco makes it and the label
> on the car
> reads
> >"Racin' Ratz" and I was told it cost less than twenty bucks.
found any better pricing than that. I bought the cool looking yellow one
which operates at 49 MHz. This bugger goes fast! There is a differential
which allows it to spin on a dime. If one were try to do position control
with their stamp, what is the easiest way to do it? Does anyone know of
any encoders that will allow reasonably precise position control for a
small DC motor such as this? I'm thinking about strapping on some sensors
and a stamp so that it can drive itself but precise position control is a
must. Does anyone have any ideas?
Best Regards,
Jim
On Sat, 16 Sep 2000, Brian Schmalz wrote:
> I just looked this up on www.toysrus.com (which is now done by Amazon) and
> it says that it is made by Mattel and costs $40. Just FYI. Here's the link:
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004SW3T/103-3139862-0934249
>
> *Brian
>
> > > Oops, forgot the car name! Tyco makes it and the label
> > on the car
> > reads
> > >"Racin' Ratz" and I was told it cost less than twenty bucks.
>
>
>