Let's build a radio-controlled tank with a first-person view that can be controlled from a distance of up to 2 kilometers! My project was based on a remote control rover, it is easy to build, easy to program and a great project for hobbyists!
The bot is very fast and agile, not to mention the fact that it has two powerful engines! It will certainly outrun a human, no matter what surface the race is on!
The bot is still a prototype, even after months of development.
So what is FPV? FPV, or First Person View, is a First Person View. We usually see FPV while playing games on consoles and computers, such as racing games. FPV is also used by the military for surveillance, defense, or to monitor protected areas. Hobbyists use FPV in quadcopters for aerial filming and just for fun. This all sounds as cool as the cost of building a quadcopter, so we decided to build something smaller that rides on the ground.
How to manage this? The bot is based on an Arduino board. Since Arduino supports a wide variety of add-ons and modules (RC/WiFi/Bluetooth), you can choose any of the communication types. For this build we will use special components that will allow control over long distances using a 2.4Ghz transmitter and receiver that controls the bot.
There is a demo video in the last step.
All-terrain vehicle tracks
As a rule, tracks for homemade all-terrain vehicles are made from high-strength conveyor belt, which lends itself well to various types of deformation while driving. It does not require special care; all you need is to clean it from dirt from time to time.
So, let's now talk more about creating caterpillars. For work you will need the following materials:The tape contains professional pipes with a characteristic cross-section; it is with their help that the all-terrain vehicle can cover distances in the most unfavorable weather.
- Bolts and nuts of various shapes and sizes.
- Profiled pipe with cross-section.
- Massive fittings.
- Conveyer belt.
You should also have the following tools in your arsenal:
- Powerful drill.
- Welding machine.
- Big hammer.
- Universal set of wrenches.
- Track pressing machine.
Based on the size of the track, you need to prepare the appropriate bolts and nuts. Next, take the reinforcement and start shaping it into a rounded shape using a crimping machine. Then, using a welding machine, you need to weld the letter V at the top of the reinforcement.
For a more detailed understanding of the steps, we recommend watching a video on how to make caterpillars with your own hands.
After the work has been done, you will have a homemade track that needs to be attached to another track, etc. The result of the work will be a reliable track for an all-terrain vehicle.
Tank made from scrap materials for children
The first option will require the use of matchboxes. This is easily accessible material for everyone. You will need three boxes and two sheets of green paper.
- Using the first sheet we cover two boxes.
- We cover one box with the second sheet.
- We place the resulting rectangles on top of each other and glue them.
- We make a barrel from the remaining paper and attach it to the body. The first tank is ready.
Every housewife can find a washable sponge for dishes. This is an almost finished tank. We cut a small piece from the sponge and put it on the main body, we also make wheels (caterpillars) for the tank and glue it. We use a toothpick to make the barrel of a tank.
Edible thangkas can often be found during the holidays. They are created not only from baked goods, but also from salads. This is quite a beautiful decoration for the holiday table. It will definitely attract attention.
The tank can be made from any material that comes to hand. Paper, metal flasks, plasticine and even egg cassettes.
Radio-controlled tank T-34
Greetings, dear readers of our portal.
Today I want to tell you about a very interesting person, an old-school modeler who assembles radio-controlled tanks with his own hands, down to the very last screw.
So meet me - Yaropolov Ivan Kirillovich
Ivan Kirillovich is a pensioner, he worked at the Krin plant as the head of the design department. He has been working on his tanks for more than five years, and began assembling his first tank when his grandchildren were born.
Ivan Kirillovich assembled two tanks and is still assembling a third, currently more advanced. He gave one of the tanks, the very first one, to his grandchildren, and since his grandchildren were not many years old, they had already played with the tank so much that all that remained of it were “horns and legs,” or rather, caterpillars 
Ivan Kirillovich also told us a little about the features of his tank:
I was looking for drawings of this tank for a very long time. The information was mainly taken from books taken from the library, and the approximate dimensions, for subsequent reduction in scale, were taken from a real T-34 tank standing in our city of Kirov as a monument. While I was taking dimensions from the original tank, a funny thing happened.
So, Ivan Kirilovich climbed onto the pedestal with the tank and took measurements, a man came up and said, “What are you doing there, uncle?”, and Ivan Kirillovich answered him, “So you understand, this tank is being sent to Chechnya, and we were told to make a wooden one.. ", the man immediately swore that they had completely lost their conscience..
At the time of our visit to the modeller, he had one working model of the tank and a half-assembled new, improved one, which you can see in the background of the photo below.
By the way, the tanks on the sides of the tank, which you can see in the photo, even perform their main role on the model. They contain batteries that supply energy to the model. Moreover, they also have connectors for the charger. It sometimes takes Ivan Kirillovich a month or two to produce such complex parts.
Ivan Kirillovich tried to make his model as faithful as possible to match the original T-34 tank.
The chassis of the tank was never changed for this model, but the turret was changed several times, as different guns were installed. As you can see in the photo at the beginning of the article, the small tank model does not have fuel tanks. Ivan Kirillovich explains to us that these were reserve tanks and they were installed only during long movements across the terrain, forced marches... In battle, these tanks were removed to avoid a fire when a shell hit them.
One of the problems for the pensioner was the radio control system for the tank. Not every pensioner in our time is able to familiarize themselves with and purchase the latest radio control systems for controlling models. These are people of the old school, and therefore, as experiments, we used remote controls for Chinese radio-controlled cars and car alarm systems. But these systems had a big drawback - there were only 2 channels “forward/backward” and “right/left”, which made it impossible to realize all the capabilities of the T-34 tank model... after all, the tank still had a turret which needed the ability to rotate .
Also, Ivan Kirillovich’s tank had a unique system for firing capsules from a hunting rifle, which also required an additional control channel.
The trigger mechanism was invented and made by Ivan Kirillovich with his own hands and consisted of a motor, a special gearbox and a manually cocked trigger.
By the way, Ivan Kirillovich told us about his plans to make an automatic loading system in his new model. Just imagine a radio-controlled tank with an automatic capsule loading system!.. The shot from such a charge is very impressive, very loud with a lot of smoke. You can watch the shot itself on video at the end of the article.
But, even with two-channel control, Ivan Kirillovich figured out how to control the tank, the turret, and the trigger mechanism. He used one engine as a switch. Its circuit is quite simple - press forward, the engine spins and turns on forward... press forward again, the switch motor spins and turns off forward.. Here's a clever scheme for multiplying each control channel by 2.
Of course, such a tank cannot be assembled just like that, says Ivan Kirillovich. The tank is assembled from more than 500 parts, most of which are made by hand or on a machine. Young people nowadays have little interest in such things... the majority either sit at computers or wander around the gates. But before there were many circles and clubs for modeling and the guys went to them for free. Now these circles and clubs are gradually closing because they cannot withstand the market relations prevailing in society. They simply cannot financially provide for their material base and premises for classes... And this is a very sad trend.
It turns out that Ivan Kirillovich made not only tanks. As he told us, he made a working model of the Belarus tractor, and also tried to make a radio-controlled helicopter. And he does all this with his own hands, almost without purchased parts. The only purchased parts in Ivan Kirillovich’s models are engines and radio control systems. True, it is difficult for a pensioner to buy special model engines and batteries, because all this is quite expensive relative to the size of the pension, so his models are not as maneuverable as store-bought options, but this is not the main thing.. The main thing in his models is the authenticity of the original and handmade work with great precision and accuracy.
Ivan Kirillovich says the following about making his models: “When I started modeling, I thought, well, yes, I filed it and okay... And then I realized that you need to make every detail as if you were making a real part... With all responsibility .. Here’s a nut, let’s say.. It’s not just a nut, you need to cut a thread on it so that it unscrews and tightens as it should.”. That is. Even such parts as screws and nuts are made by Ivan Kirillovich by hand. “I make the connectors myself.. There are no connectors..”, he continues.
“At the plant I worked as the head of the tool shop, then I worked as the head of the design bureau. There has always been an instrument, I love the instrument.” Ivan Kirillovich has a workshop both at home and in the garden, so he works on his favorite models all year round: at home in winter, and in the garden in summer. The set of tools is certainly impressive. Imagine a set of drills from 1mm to 10mm every 0.1mm. Also taps and dies for cutting threads on both screws and nuts. The smallest die for cutting threads on a 1.2mm screw. The lathe is located at the dacha, so there is always the opportunity to make almost any part yourself. The gearboxes are also made by hand, that is, the housing, the mount, and even the gears.
Ivan Kirillovich is worried about who he can pass on his experience and instrument to, because his grandchildren live in Moscow and he does not yet see a clear craving for this type of modeling. But let’s hope that Ivan Kirillovich’s grandchildren will become smart and successful people and follow in the footsteps of their grandfather in modeling.
“I became interested in tanks when I was thinking about what to start doing.. Assembling cars is very simple, but what interested me in tanks was that not a single model has real tracks. And first of all, I decided to make real tracks out of metal, casting the tracks by hand. Here, each track is cast, then I drill it, install the pins” (axles connecting the tracks to each other). Ivan Kirillovich cast the trucks from a typographic alloy from which matrices for printing newspapers are made.
We had the opportunity to once again verify that Ivan Kirillovich is a real master. One day a woman he knew brought a very old mantel clock for repair.
So, Ivan Kirillovich made a copy of the case from them. He cast the case himself from bronze, and the clock mechanism was taken from a real T-34 tank. As he told us, “During the war there was no time for watches. They were not painted or inserted into the body since the life of the tank was 2-3 battles. And then after the war these watches were used for consumer goods, but their quality did not deteriorate. I myself did not participate in the war, because when it started I was 10 years old.”
Ivan Kirillovich made the watch back in 1983. The result is a working replica of that ancient clock. And this watch still works properly and shows the correct time.
At the end of the conversation, Ivan Kirillovich told us that somewhere in Volgograd, pensioners organized a design bureau and made models of tanks there on a scale of 1:9, in order to later recreate the battle on the Kursk Bulge. If suddenly you know how to contact people from this bureau, or if your grandfather or father is engaged in a similar type of modeling, you can always leave us the coordinates and we will pass them on to Ivan Kirillovich so that he can communicate on similar interests with modelers like him.
Caterpillar for UAZ
Next we will tell you how to make tracks on an UAZ with your own hands. For this model, a caterpillar made from ordinary car tires is suitable. Select a massive truck tire in advance.
Be sure to pay attention to the characteristic tread pattern. If it has triangular cutouts, then the tire will fit.
To make it, you need to carefully cut out the sides and, most importantly, do not forget to leave space for the treadmill. Then start connecting the resulting tires using car belts.
The result of the work will be a ready-made caterpillar for operation by the UAZ all-terrain vehicle.
Caterpillars for walk-behind tractor
Now it’s time to learn how to make tracks on a walk-behind tractor with your own hands. We say right away that the procedure is very similar to assembling conventional tracks for an all-terrain vehicle.
In the same way, you need to weld together professional pipes with a cross-section and give them the shape of an English letter V.
The only difference will be the fastening on the sides using bushing-roller chain screws.
Finally, measure the length of the caterpillar, and if it is slightly larger than necessary, then simply remove a few extra cm of the corrugated pipe.
Remote controller
The remote control is comfortable, made of durable plastic. Several times he successfully withstood blows to the floor. Powered by just two AA batteries. On the remote control there are buttons for the direction of movement (in the form of levers), a button for firing a machine gun, a cannon, and turning the turret. And, of course, turning the machine on and off.
Let's take it apart and see what's inside. Transmitter on the FLTX9B chip and a pair of UHF transistors. The power button for the remote control is not required, since until you press any of the buttons, it does not consume any current. Comfortable.
The antenna is made in the form of a steel spiral covered with rubber. This is much better than a telescopic one, since it can be bent and not afraid of breaking. And children usually do this.
