RC car

Hack a toy RC car and control it with your micro:bit and Kitronik parts!

Warning

This activity involves opening an electronic toy, cutting its wires and reconnecting them. Your toy could end up becoming totally useless. Hacking has its risks and rewards!

Materials

toy RC car with 4 or 6 AA batteries
1 micro:bit (optionally, another micro:bit too if you want radio control)
wire trimmer
small Philips screw driver
1 Kitronik motor driver

What’s our hack plan?

Most toy RC cars use 3 small DC motors to operate:

1 DC motor to spin (torque) the back wheels
1 DC motor to spin (torque) the front wheels
1 DC motor to steer the front wheels

What we’re going to do is open up the RC car, remove the existing electronic controller, and replace it with the Kitronik motor driver that controls 2 DC motors. We will connect the two torque motors to one controller and the steering motor to the other controller.

After the motor driver is connected, we will use a micro:bit to control it. Also, we can use another micro:bit as a radio controller for the micro:bit that’s in the car.

Getting a car to hack

Ask friends or family members if they have any old RC cars lying around. Scout around at thrift shops and other second hand stores for donated RC cars.

Activities

Let’s make it!