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The Carigy

Photos

Picture of a small RC car with several cardboard boxes glued onto it Side profile view of the Carigy RC car Carigy being controlled via Bluetooth from a phone

Links

Prototype J2ME internet comms app
Onboard camera view during testing
Initial testing report

Preface

I like exploring new places. However, sometimes it's not safe for me to enter them, or I don't know if there's anything interesting on the other side. If only there was a little robot I could send to scout the location for me...

Description

The Carigy (combination of Car and Prodigy) is a small cheap Chinese RC car I am actively modifying to be controlled over Internet. I try to avoid buying specific parts and only use what I have readily available, therefore it looks very hacky... The hardware stack is a $5 RC car, a $5 ESP32 and a free powerbank glued onto it. A missing component is an old phone for camera and cell services, but I don't have an app ready yet.

How it works

  • The car is controlled via its normal remote, but...
  • An ESP32 is attached to this remote, and can programmatically press buttons with optocouplers
  • The ESP32 receives commands from an old phone via Bluetooth, which in turn uses 2G/3G communication to get commands from the server and send a camera feed back.

Is it the best way to do this? Probably not. But I'm doing it anyway because it's fun!