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Life & fun · December 9, 2012

IB

I built a Raspberry Pi/Android driven toy car

I am not sure if this is fits the HN community, but I am posting it here if people are interested. This is the current iteration of the car: http://i.imgur.com/ko8YBh.jpg Details: I wrote a simple android app that streams the accelerometer data from the phone to the pi over a simple socket. The pi then uses this data to drive the DC motor and the servo motor. Tilting the phone to control the car feels very natural. In this[0] pic you can see the wifi dongle I've used. I am using Adafruit Occidental v0.2[1] as my OS because it has support for my wifi dongle. It also makes some hardware…

Alternativestop 6% of December 2012

What it does

In the maker’s words, at launch

I am not sure if this is fits the HN community, but I am posting it here if people are interested. This is the current iteration of the car: http://i.imgur.com/ko8YBh.jpg Details: I wrote a simple android app that streams the accelerometer data from the phone to the pi over a simple socket. The pi then uses this data to drive the DC motor and the servo motor. Tilting the phone to control the car feels very natural. In this[0] pic you can see the wifi dongle I've used. I am using Adafruit Occidental v0.2[1] as my OS because it has support for my wifi dongle. It also makes some hardware interaction easier and comes pre-installed with some good python libraries. Here[2] is a picture of the breadboard. I am using the L293DNE[3] hbridge chip for DC motor control. The two black wires you see coming off the board connect to the motor. In this[4] pic is the battery pack I am using to power the pi. I purchased it on amazon here[5]. Here is a pic[6] of the battery pack I am using for the DC motor. Here[7] is a closeup of the steering servo. It is an HS-55[8] and I power it directly from the pi's 5v rail. To control it I use the servoblaster kernal module[9]. My next plans are to add some sensors and make it autonomous. Let me know what you think. [0] http://i.imgur.com/w0PIk.jpg [1] http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-raspberry-pi-educational-linux-distro/occidentalis-v0-dot-2 [2] http://i.imgur.com/hhogr.jpg [3] http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Texas-Instruments/L293DNE/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtYFXwiBRPs0wSafWlCmJbc [4] http://i.imgur.com/3t6NG.jpg [5] http://www.amazon.com/PowerGen-External-Blackberry-Sensation-Thunderbolt/dp/B005VBNYDS [6] http://i.imgur.com/zpgyj.jpg [7] http://i.imgur.com/b8Qnc.jpg [8] http://www.servocity.com/html/hs-55_sub-micro.html [9] https://github.com/richardghirst/PiBits

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