
Ask HN: Is there no hackable RC car? - bcherny
I want to build a small self driving car, but am worried about getting sucked down the hardware rabbit hole. Instead I&#x27;d like to use an off the shelf car kit, which will let me focus on the software side.<p>Nice to haves for the hardware:<p>- Medium sized car (big enough to fit a laptop on top), maybe 3x3x3 feet
- Comes with power, motor, wifi, camera
- Extensible: I can add radar, etc. if needed<p>The best thing I&#x27;ve found so far is this kit [1],  but it&#x27;s pretty expensive and doesn&#x27;t seem like it&#x27;s made to be hacked.<p>Does anyone have experience with something like this?<p>[1] http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.electricbeachwagons.com&#x2F;index.php?p=1_2_Products
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jweather
Most RC cars are about as hackable as it gets already. You can drop an Arduino
in between the receiver and the motor controller/servos and drive them however
you want with simple PWM signals. 3x3 feet is enormous, though -- you could
try looking for sites that sell BattleBots starter frames, depending on the
terrain you want to tackle. Here's one:
[http://www.battlekits.com/](http://www.battlekits.com/)

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King-Aaron
How about powerwheels cars?

They're cheap second hand, they have a cheap plastic body so you won't feel
back chopping it up to fit hardware onto it... They don't have electric
steering, so you'd need a servo to operate that. However they're pretty good
otherwise.

Edit: An article on the subject. Brief but you get the idea
[https://devpost.com/software/self-driving-
powerwheels](https://devpost.com/software/self-driving-powerwheels)

~~~
dpeck
That seems like a very good idea. I got one secondhand (given away) a few
years ago for my little one and in the process of hunting down some
replacement wheels and a new battery for it I stumbled into a rich world of
powerwheels enthusiasts who optimize them for kids or for themselves.

The computerized hackability may be a little outside of that community but
you'd have some great shoulders to stand on as far as the equipment.

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lathiat
It's relatively straight forward to build RC cars through hobby components,
i'm not sure about a 3x3x3 car kit though - I think most kits target a
different size. You can probably use the same sortof stuff to build such a
thing though.

Look at hobby king for cheap bits...

There's also several published self driving RC car projects including code but
right now my google is failing me, theres a couple hobby ones using rpi and
such and one from a university I wish I could find.

~~~
lathiat
found it, from georgia tech

\- [http://autorally.github.io/](http://autorally.github.io/) \-
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSt0P1uqi4zU5RX2DZC_Qvg/vid...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSt0P1uqi4zU5RX2DZC_Qvg/videos)
\-
[https://github.com/AutoRally/autorally](https://github.com/AutoRally/autorally)

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Someone
[https://diyrobocars.com](https://diyrobocars.com),
[http://www.donkeycar.com](http://www.donkeycar.com).

Also, think about what you want. I see a bit of conflict between your two
statements _" an off the shelf car kit, which will let me focus on the
software side"_ and _" Extensible: I can add radar, etc. if needed"_

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lamlam
>made to be hacked.

An oxymoron if I ever saw one.

I don't think there's any way not to get into the hardware part if you want to
do something like this. If you are really opposed to hardware then might I
suggest looking at some road traffic simulators and trying to simulate a self
driving car? Might be a good place to start.

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robotresearcher
Intel's Euclid might be interesting for an all-in-one sensing and compute
unit. Just need to interface with motor controller and steering servo. Arduino
would be a good pairing for that. The RGBD camera is probably indoor only for
depth.

[https://click.intel.com/realsense.html](https://click.intel.com/realsense.html)

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dhruvrrp
If you can't find one which fits your size requirements, i would recommend
getting a modmypie rc car kit and using ROS to communicate b/w your laptop and
the car.

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richerlariviere
On the software side you can hack around with PX4, a drone autopilot firmware
running on Pixhawk board. PX4 is supporting rovers aka rc car. The community
is great also.

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yial
Personally, any hobby-grade rc car that uses servos for steering, a real
receiver, etc is pretty easy to hack.

For something large, I would say look at the Traxxas X-Maxx.

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jquast
just received this as a gift, [https://www.elegoo.com/product/elegoo-uno-
project-upgraded-s...](https://www.elegoo.com/product/elegoo-uno-project-
upgraded-smart-robot-car-kit-v2-0/)

haven't put it together yet, but its got everything you want except video
camera, no reason it can't be added -- its just an arduino..

~~~
bcherny
That looks really nice. How big is it? And is the software it's running open
source, and made to be extended?

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EJTH
Sounds like you want a roomba...

[http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/irobot-
annou...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/irobot-announces-
create-2-an-updated-hackable-roomba)

