Photo: Arduino
The things that an Arduino board can power are only limited by our imagination, and with a little work, this little piece of technology can end up doing amazing things.
A 16-year-old, for example, has created a self-driving toy car that’s powered by an Arduino Nano as part of a project that also includes cheap parts like IR sensors and modules created with a 3D printer.
As you can see in the video below, and which was shared on reddit a few days ago, the RC car, which at one point was a Traxxas Slash, has a surprising feature package, including cool blinking LEDs that turn on automatically before it starts moving.
The car also feature what’s being described a “self arrest” system, which is used to stop the car and follow the path simply because otherwise, this little thing can go as fast as 80 kph (nearly 50 mph).
It goes without saying that the project can be further improved with additional components, including speed control module, as someone on reddit suggests.
“To control the speed of the car he should look up Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). Sounds complicated but it just means turning the power on and off very fast. The ratio of on-time vs off-time determines the amount of power the motor gets. Arduino has PWM built in for certain pins,” one user explains.
While at first glance this may not seem such a big deal, this kind of project not only that shows the potential of building gadgets from cheap parts, but also highlights just how powerful an Arduino board is in the first place.
And the price of the Arduino is what makes everything even cooler, as the Nano version that was used to power this self-driving toy car is available for only for just $20 (and of course, it costs a lot less if you buy a used one from eBay).
As you can see in the video below, and which was shared on reddit a few days ago, the RC car, which at one point was a Traxxas Slash, has a surprising feature package, including cool blinking LEDs that turn on automatically before it starts moving.
The car also feature what’s being described a “self arrest” system, which is used to stop the car and follow the path simply because otherwise, this little thing can go as fast as 80 kph (nearly 50 mph).
It goes without saying that the project can be further improved with additional components, including speed control module, as someone on reddit suggests.
“To control the speed of the car he should look up Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). Sounds complicated but it just means turning the power on and off very fast. The ratio of on-time vs off-time determines the amount of power the motor gets. Arduino has PWM built in for certain pins,” one user explains.
While at first glance this may not seem such a big deal, this kind of project not only that shows the potential of building gadgets from cheap parts, but also highlights just how powerful an Arduino board is in the first place.
And the price of the Arduino is what makes everything even cooler, as the Nano version that was used to power this self-driving toy car is available for only for just $20 (and of course, it costs a lot less if you buy a used one from eBay).
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