Tankbot is a
kind of a generic robot platform that I will use for
further robotics development. I thought I would share it
with everyone at this stage because of the toy tank
hacking I've done to create a great chassis for robot
development for under $30!
It started one
day while playing with my son & his army toys. Even
though the motorized toy only rolled straight
forward, I noticed each tread was independent, and not
tied together on a single axel. Later that night I
grabbed a screwdriver and did some disecting. I couldn't
believe what I found – two motors inside, as if it were
originally designed to turn, but the toy company decided
at some point it would only go straight. Strange.. So the
next day I told my son that his tank would need to be
donated to research and he would never see it again in
the same form. :)
I gutted the
electronics that came with it (a board which made noises
and made the tank roll forward & backward). I had an
extra board from my SumoBot, so I used that as the brains
for this bot.
Hooked up
HiTec RC Receiver (originally used with a crashed &
deceased RC airplane) and programmed the PIC on my board
to read in the signals.. turning my tank into an RC toy.
I have future
plans to mount the turret on a servo, utilizing the 3rd
channel on my RC equipment, and would also like to mount
that PING))) ultrasonic sensor to play around with.
Toy Tank was originally purchased at Toys
R Us in around 2005, but it looks like the still carry
something similar. However, before you order please
make sure it's motorized. It no longer states whether or
not it's motorized on the website, so I'm not sure if
they've changed it. Probably best to go into the store
and check it out. I also seen the same toy under a
different name at K-Mart recently, so keep your eye out
in the toy section.
I wrote the code in C, using the Hi-Tech
PICC Lite compiler.
I'm using a 25C 11.1v 1500mAh LiPo
battery pack. I ordered it from Go_Market
on eBay. It was a 2-pack, I'm glad I have an extra!
The RC equipment I'm using originally
came with the Sky Scooter RC airplane. The receiver
survived the multiple crashes. Not much else did.
The receiver is a HiTec 72MHz AM
HAS-03MB. The transmitter is a HiTec Focus 2 SS AM.
