I was trying to decide what to do, as a ‘productive’ project with my arduino this weekend, when I stumbled upon my old wired xbox 360 controller, and remembered my RC car that no longer functioned.
…Wired the basic functions of the controller- RB and LB momentary switches, and X & Y axis trimpots from left and right analog joysticks. Decided to do it this way, reading up on proprietary USB blah blah blah Microsoft junk made using the existing serial communication dang near impossible (or at least way too time consuming for a ‘fun’ project)
Wired cat5 to the RC car functions- 1 pair each for drive motor, steering motor, ‘horn’, and headlamps. The arduino was fairly easy to wire up. I used a VCR motor drive chip for the forward and reverse action, and a DPDT relay for left and right steering. 2V 3A external power supply for the motor driver….
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!