Racing Power Wheels Part 10: New Hydraulic Brake System

So the first braking system on the Power Wheels Dune Racer wasn't working really well in stopping the car. So we ordered a new hydraulic braking system that was shown in the last blog post. I got around to installing it on the Power Wheels with some parts of the previous braking system and with the help of Bryan from here. Below is a picture of the original braking system with the metal linkage.

The Pi Zero Drone Part 1: Introduction

Figure 1: X Frame Quad Copter

Introduction: The multirotor copters or ‘multicopter’ is a highly popular recreational hobby but are also being implemented into professional use in cinematography and even surveying landscapes that may be hard to access by foot. There are many types of multirotor copters that come in various sizes depending on the cargo onboard the copter. For this build a quadcopter with 4 propellers will be the main focus. Now comes the time to pick the style of the frame. Popular quadcopter frames include X and H frame designs. Just as the shape of the letters depicts, the location of the rotors offer minor differences depending on the use of copter. X frame quadcopters are a highly stable platform with endless possibilities for various motors and propellers.

Racing Power Wheels Part 9: Demonstration, Test Run, and Steering Problems

You can see some of the testing that we did in the videos above. In the first video above, we were simply testing the motor with the chain, sprockets, and axle. In the second video, Mihai from Boca Bearings was testing the Power Wheels Boca Dune Racer around the building.

In the first video, you can see that the Power Wheels seem to pick up lots of speed by looking at how fast the wheels were spinning. I can't really remember if we went full throttle but I think we did. After doing some more testing of the motor with the chain and axle, the set screws on the motor sprocket would fling out. So I went to Lowe's to get some Loctite Blue Thread Locker to keep the screws from coming out. Below are some pictures of the Loctite and on the set screws.

Racing Power Wheels Part 8: The Brakes, Problems Encountered, and Sparks Resolved

In this post I will be covering the braking system and the components of the braking system. The braking system can be seen in the picture above. To start things off, I will be talking about the mechanical brake kit that was ordered for this project. A mechanical brake kit was ordered from Go Power Sports and the link to the kit is http://www.gopowersports.com/go-kart-mechanical-brake-disc-kit-9511-9598-th1000/. Below is a stock picture of the kit from the website.

It includes a brake disc that would go onto the axle and lock onto the axle with the use of set screws and a key. It also includes a caliper along with a bracket for the caliper. All three components can be seen installed onto the Power Wheels frame in the first picture above. To activate the brake lever, I decided to use some sort of linkage system based on what I have seen others do on go karts. In the picture above, you can see a L-like bracket where the caliper bracket is bolted to. This L-like bracket is then bolted to the extended frame. With the use of the L bracket, no welding was required to install the brake caliper. Initially, I was planning on getting the caliper bracket welded to the frame but John came up with this design/idea which is much better since now the braking system can be removed easily for any reason.

Below is another shot of the caliper installed on the frame.

Racing Power Wheels Part 7: Setting up the Steering

With the drive axle pretty much done the next thing to work on would be the steering system of the Power Wheels Dune Racer. The above pictures were just some shots during the process of fabricating the steering system. So to start things off, I'll talk about the individual parts of the steering system.

The first part I'll bring up is the spindles along with their brackets. They came together as a complete kit. Below is an image of the kit that I got from BMI Karts.

Racing Power Wheels Part 6: Motor Testing, Controller, and Sparks

So it's been a while since progress has been made on the Power Wheels Dune racer. I've been busy with school and it set me back on this project. Below is a video of some of the progress that was made last time.

      

It's not a really good video. It was mostly composed of videos that I recorded here and there and there were some parts that I didn't get to record.

But below is a picture of where I was at last time with all the electrical parts mounted on some diamond plating that was cut out to fit the back portion of the frame.

In the picture above you can see the 3 12V batteries being held down with some rubber straps. On the back side of the battery pack I have two eye bolts that are supporting the back side of the battery pack. On the front side of the battery pack, which can't be seen in the picture above, I have two L brackets supporting the front side of the battery pack.

You can see where I have mounted the motor controller. I may need to create some kind of barrier of some sort to prevent the wires from going towards the sprocket. Heading towards the front of the Power Wheels, the motor was placed in front of the controller. It took me some trial and error to decide where to place the motor to be able to install the chain.

In the end, I found that maybe I should have move the motor just a little closer to the axle sprocket. The reason for this is because when we installed the chain it was quite difficult. So I had the motor and the axle sprocket not fully bolted down to install the chain. Once installed, I bolted the axle sprocket to the sprocket hub and bolted the motor down. Once this was done, the chain was on pretty tight without any kind of slack. I believe it's too tight. So I may enlarge the mounting holes for the motor to have some play for adjustment and then bolt it down.

Here's another picture of the setup in the back without the plastic Power Wheels body. It is a much clearer picture and you better see the parts on the back.

Racing Power Wheels Part 5: The Rear Axle and Parts

So lately I've been working on the axle and drive system and I have received the motor controller that was ordered from TNC Scooters and now the motor works now. I'm in the processing of trying to return the two motor controllers I got from Monster Scooter Parts so they can test them and see if they are faulty or not.

So I have received the axle, sprocket for the axle, brake disk kit, some collars, keys, a sprocket hub, and the wheels and tires. Below is an image of the axle with its components without the wheels. 

In the picture above, from left to right, you can see a collar, the brake disk, the sprocket hub with the sprocket bolted onto it, and then finally another collar. I'll go into a little more detail on each part that I have received so far for the axle.