Alternative Electronic setups

Questions, Tips and Tricks about the transmitter, the electronics in the car etc.
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HeliumFrog
Posts: 82
Joined: Tue 7. Oct 2014 22:28
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Alternative Electronic setups

Post by HeliumFrog »

Yet another one of my hobbies is quadcopters! Recently there have been lots of small transmitter and receiver packages coming to market. They would be slightly more expensive that the standard magracing setup, but would be an option for experimentation and widely available locally. Most work on 2.4ghz and use the bind n fly method. Once bound to a model they just work. You can have hundreds all working at once without issue as they do automatic band switching.

Here are a few I have found.

Hubsan X4
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hubsan-X4-H107 ... n+x4+drone
This quadcopter is everywhere. the hand controller is really nice and there are brushless drivers onboard a very small pcb. I just picked one up of ebay for £18. Parts can be bought separately. They even do one with a small FPV camera. The motors are quite powerful. I was wondering if two of them could directly drive the rear wheels of a magracer.

Micro MWC
http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking/st ... rated.html
This is a small controller board that again has brushless motor outputs on board. This is the complete package and includes the reciever. You can use any dsm2 protocol transmitter to control it (such as a Spektrum DX6). The programming port means you can upload firmware to it. You can do this from the Arduino IDE similar to the normal arduino microcontrollers. It has gyros etc. on board

KKmini
http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking/st ... _5mm_.html
This is a tiny board but needs a transmitter to be attached. The advantage here is the small lcd screen and buttons so you can interact with the firmware. Again the board is programmable using the arduino IDE. It has input and output pins (digital or analog). Gyros etc. are also on board. These are so cheap I will probably use them for most of my next microcontroller projects. They would make a nice controller for a lap counter or other static projects (I'm thinking pit lighting or crew that activate when you enter the pits, drag racing lighting trees etc.)

Many of these boards have battery monitoring inputs and buzzer outputs which is useful so you don't ruin unprotected lipos by discharging them too much.

I imagine these boards could be used in special magracing projects. Some people use the gyros in RC cars to enable drifting, so there may be some options we could use. For example a 1/24 scale car could have gyro stabilisation, working lights, special routines for pit entry, self driving cars etc.etc.

Please post up any more interesting ones you find.
BriG
Posts: 37
Joined: Wed 10. Aug 2016 00:44
Location: Bethlehem, Connecticut USA

Re: Alternative Electronic setups

Post by BriG »

HFrog,

I agree 100% on looking at alternative electronics. I wish I possessed a fraction of the knowledge of how all these micro boards and controllers and Arduino etc. work, but sadly it is all Greek to me. I have all to do to figure out basics on my computer, which I have come really close to just launching out the window on numerous occasions. I think so many things about how these cars are put together and operated could be dramatically improved on if we could pool our resources of knowledge together to hone Wes' concept to get the most out of the hobby and the most for him.

As soon as I can get my hands on a car and get myself acquainted with the current design, I would love to experiment with some new ideas to improve on things, perhaps like using a brushless motor, different chassis for different bodies, different wheels and tires, maybe lights, and who knows what else. I've been reading what others have been doing with all of these and other things and at some point I hope to be diving in myself. I'd love to be the one to post something like, oh yeah this electronic setup works great and you can do this and that, but it probably won't be me. If you HFrog or anyone in the forum have the knowledge and the interest, then you could be the one, and that's what will add to the whole concept of more realistic racing and keep this Magracing ball rolling.

Wes has certainly come up with something revolutionary, and from what I can gather from reading this forum, for him this may have reached the point of going as far as he feels he can take it himself. Perhaps with the efforts of others with his same passion, and being given his blessings, maybe this hobby will someday reach the levels of what he initially dreamed of. This forum is great to be a part of and it certainly needs the input of everyone with an interest to participate in whatever way they can.

All of this babble is coming from someone who has never actually seen or touched or driven a Magracer. Do you have any HFrog?

Brian
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