Arduino Creeper Bot

[MNiTwInInG]

EXCELLENT!

And this is Why, I'm studying computer science.

I liked software Engineering too But, idk..

[olliecracker]

Thats a Wicked project!

[letsgetcrunktv3000]

can you make a tutorial for this? i really want to make one but i am not very good with arduino or C++

[Scarfacekillah7]

if i had one of these i bet i could see lots of naked girls

[DaveSimonH]

Very cool idea, was a good that you swapped forward and reverse to the triggers on the controller for the final project. Love the addition of the camera too, although I'd have probably inverted the controls on the stick so that you press down to look up

[ProdigyOfAwesome]

coolest thing i have seen in rc yet

[J0eW00dy]

the download link on your blog isn't working :(

[Djlego7]

that is sick good job man

[TheBeverlyME2010]

poor doggy ;(

[Skate2Se7enLIVE]

That's really cool man!

[xmachineoo7]

man you are really amazing ... Great job keep it up

[ZAKKORD]

you need to shield the motor power wires to get rid of the video noise

[Bojanpzs1]

nice house :D

[swashbladeRC]

the wheels should auto center

[glennlopez]

nice!!! where can i get the wireless cam that you have mounted on your project

[howery2]

@glennlopez Check out the project's blog, which has the parts and links. creeperbot.blogspot. Its a dot com

[5445252]

@glennlopez Just do a simple search like I have a cam that has a transmitter that is capable of going 1 1/2 miles that with a seperit camera thow, but just do a basic search like wireless spy cams or something like that. that is how I found mine. sorry about my spelling.

[mrgammer131]

thats so beast bro no sarcasm at all thats cool. :D

[ewaldo4]

thanks so much for posing the required materials on your blogspot...well done!

[TrU3F3Ar]

Wow good job!!! Why don t u make a Ps3 controller running on a xbox360? Much people will buy it and it will be awsome! Also adjusting the buttons layout! Tell me what u think =D

[Jatittudez2016]

this is the most sickest thing i ever seen i used to think of things like that like how would a ps2 controll work to a RC

message me man

[XXwikkiXX]

i was wondering if i could use arduino mega for it..or do i need duemilanove?

[howery2]

@XXwikkiXX I'm sure the mega would work just as well.

[jaysonkarenjohnson]

Very cool. I am working on a similar project right now, far from finished. My question is, how did you make the speed variable? Is this in your code?

[howery2]

@jaysonkarenjohnson Basically, I am setting the "enable" pin for the drive motor on H-bridge motor controller with an analog pin. If I set the pin to 255, then the motor will be fully on. If I set it to 180, then it will go about half the speed. On the C++ side of things, I determine how far the right trigger is held down and determine the fraction of 255. Then I send that over to the arduino which sets the pin off that value.

[ktskid]

What adapter/software did you use to get the rca onto your screen?

[howery2]

@ktskid Its called EasyCap. It basically takes rca and converts it to USB and uses a program to display that input. It was the cheapest option, but its pretty shitty. Whats interesting is that it is such a basic operation, you would think there would be a ton of adapters out there. EasyCap was difficult to get working.

[onza222]

You should add full 360 camera viewing so you can see behind when reversing :)

[turtleD90]

very nice robot! you should add leds for the other buttons

[lilgampla]

can you use anything else instead of bluetooth ?

[radishfest]

"uhh yeah it's for watching my dog"

gread work :@)

[badsaturday]

Very cool!! Question tho. Did you need to add new servos for the camera? or was that one of the fancy expensive cameras with all that built in?

[howery2]

@badsaturday The camera was a cheap $40 model off of Amazon. I bought a pan and tilt servo kit seperately. You can check out the blog page for links to all the parts.

[Zaim13]

hey dude I couldnt find the part where you use the laptop to send over the infomation to the RC car. I later understand from your blog you abandoned the bluetooth modem because of short range. I have a bluetooth modem just like yours and i wanna send a msg to a laptop using its bluetooth. can ya help me by giving me a sample code of how you actually interface the ardunio mega + bluetooth modem to the laptop modem. I am quite lost.

[howery2]

@Zaim13 From a code perspective, serial com between Arduino and laptop via bluetooth is the exact same as com through the USB cord.

Example msg: "Serial.println("Setup Complete");". If the Arduino is connected to laptop through USB, the message will be sent via the USB com port. If Arduino is connected to laptop with Bluetooth it will send through the Bluetooth com port instead, but the code is the same.

In ArduinoCarp.cpp, portId must be set to the port that is talking to the bluetooth modem.

[Zaim13]

Hi, I got the code, thanks. I got another question to ask, i wanna send a message from to the laptop through the Arduino Mega and bluetooth modem. So is there a possibility you can send me a sample of the program where this 2 can communicate.

[howery2]

@Zaim13 Ok, the source code already has two way communication. I send messages from the laptop to the car via SendCommand() which is in ArduinoCar.cpp. The msg is received in loop() in Car.pde, just look for Serial.read().

What you are looking for is to send a message from the Arduino to the laptop. Msgs are sent with Serial.println(), just search for cases of this in Car.pde. Those msgs are received in ArduinoCar.cpp (look for serial.ReadData())

The .cpp code prints the incoming data.

[sandoval15]

cool :)

[Zaim13]

Dude, im doing a project using Arduino mega interfaced with a bluetooth mate, which is similair to the bluetooth chip that your using in the RC car. Is it possible for you to guide me in how to write a programme to send a message to a laptop via bluetooth. Your efforts is greatly appreciated and im a big fan of the RC car.

[howery2]

@Zaim13 Take a look the blog site for the project (link is in description of this video).

I have posted the source code there. I have included the visual studio solution as well as the Arduino side code. It should be very easy to get up and running with this code and modify it for your needs. The only thing that you may have to change to get going is the port number which is hard coded in the C++ project.

[netjomo]

Nice job!!

[netjomo]

Nice!!

[howery2]

The source code link has been updated. Also, I fixed the steering so that it matches one to one with the position of the left stick. Additionally, I swapped the Bluetooth in favor of Xbee modems. Source code and pictures can be found at the blog listed in the video description.

[cwbh10]

Could you replace the Arduino with a Netduino?

[th3runn3r]

Hi, I just want to notify that the source code isn't accessible..

Thx for sharing your project.

[9westley]

Hey dude i was just gonna ask u a few questions be great if u could send me a message thx

[tml240]

source code link broke. i got the bluesmirf working but tripping up on serial comm now.

[TheCrazypeoplerule]

cool what kind of cam is that and how much did it cost

[migit128]

Nothing special... I've done that with lego cars already and currently getting wiimotes going with it...

[facucario]

Your dog isn't a geek :(

[raffstyle]

TWISTED METAL RC !!!!!!

[darkless60]

you cant use it without a pc? -.-

[guyver33]

Perfect perv cam :p

[Scriptofmagic]

Good concept !

Hope it will be do !

[cuteboy88888]

fin0a3rMmm0

[cuteboy88888]

youtube.com/watch?v=fin0a3rMmm­0

[cuteboy88888]

v=fin0a3rMmm0

[Devon187]

that is sick.... i know why you call it the creeper bot lmao, but when i was hella young i wanted a rc car with a camera too ;D

[freakincrazyperson]

cool



[suntyro]

you should do wheel reset button too.

[LittleBoy2729]

You could also add some front wheel brakes, then you could make it do burnouts!

If you ever make two, you could have a race and put a split-screen video up...

[r0ssel0203113]

Very well made project...A+..did you use PIC C and 18F1320 micro controller or something similar to that family?

[howery2]

@r0ssel0203113 I used the Arduino Microcontroller. The input program on the laptop was written in C++. The source code can be found at the blog I mention

[JNeumanMusician]

my thoughts, outstanding project but you ened to change one thing

Standard RC cars automatically put the wheels back to straight when you are not hitting left or right on the steering joystick (which also make variable steering easier) I would say to implement that

[howery2]

@JNeumanMusician yeah the original circuit board had about 6 wires going to the steering motor. I knew that two of the wires would be for turning the motor. However, I had no idea what the other 4 were for! I believe that they have something to do with resetting the wheels.

[JNeumanMusician]

@howery2 well you could use the code to have it where it knows how far the wheels are and once the trigger is released then automatically send a signal to the wheels the right amount to center them.

[sjeses]

@JNeumanMusician

Standard RC cars (i'm assuming you mean the toys for kids, not the more advanced stuff for grownups) have very basic steering: center, 100% left and 100% right.

This is most simply done with two electromagnets on either side of a metal strip that is connected to the steering linkage.

The more advanced stuff uses servo motors for full control. They use signal referencing to determin where to turn.

They require three wires: Power + and -, and a signal wire

[supernova2023]

very cool buddy!  nice project, my son will love this!

[francisreal]

thats really cool. more things in real life need to be controlled with an xbox controller. good job.

[francisreal]

thats really cool. more things in real life need to be controlled with an xbox controller. good job.

[hustletv]

Genius!

[daniellopezd]

I think I have that RC car in my closet! did the original car was gray and could jump?

[howery2]

@daniellopezd nah, it was black with a couple lightning bolts and a huge spoiler. I would say the car is about 14 years old.

[ZeoGox]

@howery2 wow! it's really old that car, but it works great, the rc cars i had doesn't exist anymore u_u

btw i want to do that with a rc car, if i start, can i have a little of your help? you have experience

[maurorfoliveira]

when the thumb resets so should the wheels

[mrljthedj]

im working on exactly the same project (the vehicle is abit different but same principle) but ive never done anything like this in my 13 years of life. the proto type was just using the cars onboard electronics and some relays to controll pan/tilt of the camera and diirection and speed of the car. please subscribe because i will be uploading youtube vids through all different stages :)

[EchelonWeb]

Silly question maybe, but why is their so much interference in the video??, anyway this looks amazing, I'm gonna build one within the next couple weeks, keeping an eye out for the source code too

[howery2]

@EchelonWeb Yeah, I think that the video camera just isn't that great. Someone remarked that maybe the bluetooth is interfering with it, but even when the bluetooth is off, the signal isn't that great.

Its possible that our wifi is messing with it, although the camera was only $40 so I'm guessing that it is just a crappy camera.

[EchelonWeb]

@howery2 Cheers for the response, good to know it's not the bluetooth module messing things up, i will try a different camera if i get round to building it soon

[madmax10101]

rly cool :) now i thinking about making RC like Your ^^ it's great ^^

[bigbill117]

Awesome project Dan

[thisisntgraham2]

sweet Creeper Bot!