Arduino Muscle Car

Want to try your own Orangutan? Just download our Arduino sketch, load it on an Orangutan, wire up the truck, and away you go.

TIME: 1 HOUR
COST: $83.65
DIFFICULTY: EASY

PARTS

• Orangutan LV-168 robot controller (Pololu #775; $59.95)
• Sharp GP2D120 IR sensor (Mouser #852-GP2D120XJ00F; $9.74)
• Nikko Hummer 1:32 RC Truck (RadioShack #60-250; $7.97)
• Hookup wire (RadioShack #278-1224; $5.99)

NOTE: In order to program your Orangutan, you will need an AVR ISP programmer (e.g., Atmel AVRISP MkII).

Muscle Car LCD:  Dave Prochnow

STEPS

1. Follow Pololu's extensive setup instructions for configuring the Arduino programming environment to use the Orangutan LV-168 robot controller.
2. Open the RC truck and disconnect the wires for the drive motor and the steering magnet.
3. Solder two wires to the positive (+) and negative (-) battery pack terminals of the RC truck. These wires should be routed outside the truck and inserted into the power input terminals of the Orangutan.
4. Route the drive motor wires and the steering magnet wires outside the truck and attach them to the LV-168's "motor 1" and "motor 2" outputs, respectively. I was unable to get the magnetic steering control on our truck to work properly. Therefore, I elected to permanently "fix" a slight right turn into the front steering wheel's alignment.
5. Mount the Sharp GP2D120 IR sensor in I/O line C4 of the Orangutan.
6. Insert two AA batteries into the truck and turn on the LV-168's power switch. The blue power LED should illuminate. If you don't see the power LED, check your wiring from the car to the Orangutan.
7. Connect an AVR ISP programmer to your PC. Start the Arduino programming environment and copy our sketch to your PC. Download the muscle car sketch onto the Orangutan. Disconnect the RC truck from the AVR ISP programmer. Set the RC truck on the floor and press the power switch.

Muscle Car Robot:  Dave Prochnow

This tricked-out ride will play a tune, display a splash screen, flash its lights, then dart around the room. Both the room temperature and the distance measured with the Sharp sensor are displayed on the LCD. When an object closer than 30cm is detected by the sensor, the motor speed is reduced and the Hummer is driven in reverse. This "backing up" action will continue until the path in front of the truck is clear of obstacles. Happy trails.