BLE Remote Controlled Car

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Anonymous
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Inspired to put my Bluetooth LE development kit to some use, I built a BLE remote controlled car. I salvaged the chassis and drive-train from one damaged toy RC car and the H-bridge motor drivers from a second car. From a the ballast of a dead CFL bulb, I built a simple circuit to monitor the battery voltage. Zip-ties, rubber-bands and some wire-nuts hold the whole thing together. I used the PrISM pulse density modulation components for controlling the speed and direction of the motors. Even with these rather poor quality DC motors, the pulse density modulation works well. 

   
        
   
    I adapted the custom BLE profile used in the RGB LED/CapSense lab to control the car. The RGB LED service controls the speed and direction and the CapSense service provides an indication of the battery voltage. This way I can control the car from the CySmart Android app although driving the car using the color palette can be awkward.    
   
        
   
    To conserve power, the system will go into hibernation if the advertisement process times-out. Pressing the SW2 button wakes-up the system. If the button is pressed when the system is advertising or connected to the client, the system will enter hibernation. If connected, the system will send a disconnect to the client before entering hibernation.    
   
        
   
    I have posted the project archive. The archive contains a 'readme' file with a much more detailed description of the project. So it could be adapted to other salvaged toy vehicles, I designed the project to be modular.    
   
        
   
    Enjoy,   
   
        
   
    Jason   
   
        
   
        
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Anonymous
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 I hope to try out your project. A while back I tried to motorize a strandbeest kit www.sciplus.com/p/junior-scientist-strandbeest-kit_54202 This was before the PSoC BLE came out and I was using a PSoC 4 with a Bluetooth to UART module. I ended up taking it apart for parts but it would be nice to get running again. An integrated wireless + microcontroller is nice and simpler.

   

I am curious why you mounted the entire pioneer board instead of just the module. Was that just for programming without a Miniprog? Or is there something on the pioneer board that your project depends on?

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Anonymous
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 Here is a picture of my BLE RC car. 

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Anonymous
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 I hope to try out your project. A while back I tried to motorize a strandbeest kit www.sciplus.com/p/junior-scientist-strandbeest-kit_54202 This was before the PSoC BLE came out and I was using a PSoC 4 with a Bluetooth to UART module. I ended up taking it apart for parts but it would be nice to get running again. An integrated wireless + microcontroller is nice and simpler.

   

I am curious why you mounted the entire pioneer board instead of just the module. Was that just for programming without a Miniprog? Or is there something on the pioneer board that your project depends on?

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Anonymous
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 Hello,

   

These Strandbeest kits are really cool!

   

I used the entire baseboard for the onboard programming/debugging hardware and for the power regulation and protection circuitry. The motors proved to be quite noisy and I undersized some of the supply wiring. The LDO on the baseboard helped greatly keeping transients from upsetting the processor. I also used the RGB LED on the baseboard to provide an indication of the state of the BLE connection and the push button to wakeup/hibernate the device. The baseboard also fit nicely on the top of the chassis. For space constrained application, the compact size of the module is great. You may need to include some power regulation circuitry or power the module from its own supply separate from any motors. 

   

I am interested to see how your project turns-out. 

   

Best,

   

Jason

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