As Shark Boy mentioned in his previous post, we are planning to build Roblucks from a radio control car by removing the radio control and replace it with a raspberry PI. We were hoping to be able to find a car with a separate Electronic Control System (ESC) and radio control so we could connect the Raspberry PI to the ESC.
After doing some research we found that a 1:18 models fit within the dimension required for PI wars and the search was on for the car. In the end we found an ad for two Ripmax 1:18 cars (Husky and Jackal) so we can use one for parts if we have problems or if all goes well have another car to use! Either way we had our base car.
Once the cars arrived we gave them a good once over and decided that the Husky truck would make the better platform as;
The Husky has front and rear bumpers (not that we are planning to run into walls or anything like that)
Its shell is attached to the frame by four level-ish uprights on which we can mount a platform for the RPI
The Jackal's shell looks a bit better as the Huskies has bit of a hole, so the Jackal looks a bit better as a car
As I mentioned before, we were hoping that the receiver and and esc could be parted but unfortunately they appear integrated into a circuit board which would be a bit outside our electrical engineering skills to separate so it looks like we will have to buy another esc.
It also appears the cars previous owner changed the battery connections to XT60's but not the charger which adds another item to the list of things to do.
Talking of which, here is a bit of a to do list to get us started:
Convert the battery charger to a XT60 connection
Remove the existing radio controller and esc
Connect the cars steering servo to the Ardunio and onto the RPI
Find a new esc
Connect the esc to the Ardunio and onto the RPI
Build a mounting platform for the RPI, Ardunio and power supply
