Make 3d Printed Smartphone Controlled Wi-Fi Car
by ROBO HUB in Circuits > Arduino
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Make 3d Printed Smartphone Controlled Wi-Fi Car
Hey guys in this project i will teach you how to make smartphone controlled wifi car and the body for this project is made using 3d printed parts.
I have worked on many wireless robot projects earlier, but making that with 3d printed parts after designing by myself is another thing!
This wifi controlled 3d printed robot car has high torque since we are using the n20 gear motor for the engine and since we are using 2 wheel drive here the power is more than enough compared to the size of the car.
The car has great battery backup since we are using lithium ion batteries, in case any part breaks no need to worry since we have all the parts that could be easily 3d printed.
With this being said let us begin to build this project by gathering supplies required.
Supplies
Toy Dc motor
Jumper wires
Lithium ion batteryx3
Battery holder
3d printed case for nodemcu(optional)
Elastic bands
Super glue and hot glue
Switch
3D printer and filaments
Stl Files for Car Parts
The design for this wifi car was made in such a way that it should be compact and the size should be small to fit all the electronics.
There are 4 main parts in the design, Wheels, Motor holders, Base of car and the elevated holders for battery.
I have used ultimaker cura for slicing the stl files and i recommend you to use the stl files on the same slicer to assure complete success for the 3d print of these things.
Just download the below files and open it on cura, there are no parts that need supports or adhesion, make sure you are placing the designs on the print area like i did.
Print the model with pla filament and the choice of color is left to you.
You can see the color combination that i have used to print the parts, it looks cool though.
After you have all the parts ready we can move ahead on assembling the parts one after the other, let us start from the base of the car.
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Front Wheel
For the front wheel or we can say this as powered wheel i will be using N20 motor to the shafts of which we are adding wheels
I found that adding 2 wheels instead of one helps the wheel to utilize the power coming out from motors.
Glue the wheels on its sides and later connect to the shafts of motor, Repeat the same step for other motor too,
Now add the Bracket or known as holder to this motor and couple them to the car base, In my case i found that hot glue works best here.
Add the other motor to the front base, this completes the front wheel drive assembly that drives the entire car.
Adding the Rear Wheel
For the rear wheel or called as back wheel i will be using the toy dc motor.
You may now think why i used this dc motor, the answer is simple, for the smooth movement of the wheels i have used this alternative this skips the use of complex other movement mechanism like shafts.
Glue the holder to the motor and later glue the entire thing to the base of the car, repeat the same step for other side too.
This completes the assembly of the rear wheel and now we can move on to adding the other components.
Circuit and Arduino Program
The circuit used in this project is given here, For a beginner these connections might seem a little complex, To make it easier i will be explaining them below.
ENA to D5
ENB to D6
IN_1 to D8
IN_2 to D7
IN_3 to D4
IN_4 to D3
The terminals of dc motor are connected directly to the motor terminals on the motor driver.
The power supply that i will be using is from lithium ion battery pack, The 3 batteries provide 11.2v dc power.
Gnd of the battery is connected to Gnd pin of the driver and the Gnd of here is connected to gnd of Nodemcu.
The 11.2v pin is connected to 12v pin of driver and the 5v pin from driver is connected directly to the Vin pin of nodemcu.
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Assembling Things
Place the entire circuit on the base and use superglue or hot glue wherever necessary. Connect the terminals of the motor to the driver and secure the screws.
As per my design the electronic components come with standard size, So there should be no problem of misfit.
Since we have no space left at the base of the car i thought of placing the battery after making some elevation.
To elevate the height i will be using 2 small pillars that will be placed ontop of the motor frames, Use hot glue or superglue to add this structure.
Now place the battery on the top of this structure, i have added a tiny amount of hot glue to the base of battery holder so as to hold them to the structure well and not cause any movement when the car is working.
How to Use
Turn on the car first and later turn on the Wifi on your phone and connect to Robohub network, There will be no need of any password to connect.
Open the app that has all the control button for this car, if you face any issues close and open the open and again connect to the wifi network this will solve your issue.
Now take your car for some spin! The speed of the car can also be adjusted on the control panel (Slider button given at the bottom)
Make a note that if your car has some trouble moving add few more rubberbands, This add more grips to the wheels thereby increasing the friction.
Video of Smartphone Controlled Car
This is the working video of this 3d printed car and also this video has a complete step-by-step building tutorial for this project.
If you need more details which is not given in the video or in the above instructables feel free to comment with your questions we will be answering them shortly.