inspection rover

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toy4x4runner

toy4x4runner

Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Threads
18
Messages
84
Location
derry NH
Hello guys. I have built plenty of RC cars and trucks before all of the speed version. I am now starting a project for work to make a rover to inspect small places. I work in a wind turbine testing facility near Boston. I made a prototype out of a rc10t to convince my boss to let me do this project and have finally gotten approval to make a dedicated inspection rover to drive down into our blades equip with a wireless camera to inspect for cracks and whatnot.
I need a good RC base to work off. I would like to start with a rock crawler for obvious reasons. It needs to be slow, and all wheel drive. I would like to get something easy to use and somewhat reliable. Most likely a RTR I am not looking to make a project out of the car itself but if better options were available I would put one together. This does not have to be any sort of performance RC. It also needs to be relatively small in order to fit in tight places. I was thinking I could modify the shocks to make it sit lower to the ground because it only has to drive over cables. Also the body does not matter because it will be removed.


Looking over the internet I see a sea of these things and I am wondering what is popular and will be a good balance for what I need. I wound like something repairable. Can anyone give me suggestions on where to start on this? I would like to keep the car with controller under or around $300.
Thanks!
 
You have the best job EVAH. :D :D
 
How big is the camera(s) that will be mounted to it?
How big are the cables that the car will have to crawl over?
I'm thinking 1/18 scale might be too small, so maybe 1/10?
Edit: just re- read the RC10, so yeah probably 1/10 scale crawler...
 
The RC10 is to wide. It will only have to go over like 1' large cables. I just need a good crawler car to start with but don't know whats good in the crawler rc market. The camera is smaller than a go-pro.
 
Thanks for the advice. I decided to go with a scx10 rtr. Got my boss to order the SCX10 and a go-pro hero 3 with wifi so i can control the camra from a iphone. The design of this RC looks like i can get it to sit real low with some modification. Ill post pics when i get the prodject started.
 
Sweet!
Sorry, I forgot to check back after I posted...
 
so i was just imformed that the gopro hero 3 does not have streaming abilitys over a phone like i had thought. So I need a high quality camera that I can stream live feed with... any advice on that?

ok. Well after having a meeting today the desire was expressed to have a camera that moves left and right and up and down. sooooo now I’m thinking about getting a kit without a radio and running a 4 channel instead. So I have a couple more questions now.

1: what’s a decent motor? Keep in mind that it will be in a clean environment with only some dust and will see light use.

2: the radio, is that all I need is a 4 channel radio to control 2 extra servos? I guess I could get away with one. Either way what would be a good radio to use for this?

3: speed control what do yall use.

I understand that some of these questions can be found by using the search options throughout the forum. But the radio in particular is something that is a bit more specific to this build. So I really do appreciate your help.
 
You need a surface radio. 4 channel surface radios seem more popular than I remember.

https://www.google.com/#q=4+channel...cp.r_qf.&fp=6818a676c40e6156&biw=1920&bih=968

You may want to figure out what kind of video transmission you'll be dealing with before you decide on an R/C radio. 2.4Ghz is popular for video transmission. You'd hate to have them interfering and the video transmitter will be in very close proximity with the R/C receiver antenna.
 
That... Is a good point i did not evan think about that. I would like to use wifi for the video. And the thing that i don't understand about the 4 channel radios is, i see a wheel and a throttle. Then there is switches. How do i control a rotating camera with switches? Like is that on or off and nothing in between. Im going to stop bye the hobby place tomorrow to see if i can get a better understanding of that.
 
exactly what i was looking for thank you.
 
For a radio, if you still need 4 channels, I would opt for an aviation style. They have the twin sticks and are primarily for helis and planes, but would be perfect for giving you forward/reverse/ left/ right for the vehicle and up/down/left/ right for a camera. You can get a 5 or 6 channel radio and receiver pretty reasonable.

For slow and steady I would go for a 45 or 55 Turn brushed set up.
 
jynx said:
For a radio, if you still need 4 channels, I would opt for an aviation style. They have the twin sticks and are primarily for helis and planes, but would be perfect for giving you forward/reverse/ left/ right for the vehicle and up/down/left/ right for a camera. You can get a 5 or 6 channel radio and receiver pretty reasonable.

For slow and steady I would go for a 45 or 55 Turn brushed set up.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you could go with a Turnigy 9x!
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...ceiver_Mode_2_v2_Firmware_USA_Warehouse_.html

If you went with a sensored brushless motor you could have slow and steady plus wheel speed in case you got hung up...
I've got a castle mamba with a tekin redline 17.5 turn and it crawls nice plus enough power to break everything in a Gmade R1!
 
thanks again guys, ill have you know that i am in fact taking your advice seriously and will probably end up going with what you all have suggested.
 
I would think that one person would have enough to concentrate on with running the vehicle, someone else should be managing the camera. Kinda like they do on that Robot Combat League show (which I found and am amazed, thanks!). One person makes it move, the other does the fighting (video, in your case).

Not sure you're allowed by FCC to use aviation radio gear on a land vehicle. I might be wrong about that though. Worth checking into.
 
Update on the project. Still need a couple things to compleat it.
Wire harness from gopro to live video out transmitter.
Ball bearing support mounting plate to eliminate stress on the pan servo.
Lights
Retrieval system. (Deep sea real)


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It will also have a disconnect system on the front that will remove the pan tilt system and re attach the camera lower in order to view deeper into the tips of a blade.
The suspension has been completely removed and the axles are hard mounted. Witch is perfect for this application. The added weight of battery's and the soft tires gives this thing crazy grip and can climb up the walls of a blade beyond my original expectations. Ill post video when i get the live video all hooked up.
And of corse its rocking IH8MUD stickers! You guys were a big help thank you!
 
Very cool.
 
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