Adding an Arduino motor control to a an RC car in place of the existing RC controls.

Adding an Arduino motor control to a an RC car in place of the existing RC controls.

This converts an inexpensive remote control car so that you can run it via an Arduino with a Motor drive shield.

Take of the body of the Car to reveal the internal electronics. Removing the existing board will show the connections to the Motors. In most simple (cheap) RC cars the motors will be low cost DC type and this will include the steering motor as well. In more expensive models the steering may use a servo so this project will not work for that arrangement.

 

If the car is 4WD then the two drive motors will be connected in parallel as shown otherwise there will only be one drive motor.

The drive motors are connected to mototr output A+/A-.

The steering is connected to Motor output B+/B-

 

The power can be derived from the on car battery or alternatively a 6v or 9v battery can be connected either to the Arduino vin/Gnd connectors or to the motor drive shield. 

 

The Arduino sketch is pretty simple and simply uses some basic functions to drive the car forwards or in reverse and set the steering straight, left or right.

with regard to the steering the motor set to a speed of zero will allow the car to go straight on.