R/C Monster Truck

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redneckalbertan
Posts: 1274
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2012 10:39 am
Location: South Central Alberta

R/C Monster Truck

Post by redneckalbertan »

The other evening I was playing downstairs this evening with my Son. I've got an old John Deere 4 wheel drive tractor from when I was a kid in the 80's. Along with that I've got a trailer that my uncle built me to pull behind said tractor. The trailer has a simple crane on it. Anyways, my Son has a Dodge monster truck and he decides he is going to pull the Dodge with the tractor and crane (the correct spot for a Dodge! I didn't even have to show him that!)

Anyways, this evening my Son wanted to do the same thing but his monster truck was upstairs and I didn't want to get it. I remembered I had the R/C moster truck from when I was a kid in a box downstairs (it is a Ford so acceptable in this house to be towed! If you can't tell I am a General Motors fan.). So after a couple minutes of digging I had produced a "new" monster truck and He was ecstatic.

He plays with it awhile and then asks to play with the remote and drive it. The problem is I remember it not working right getting close to two decades ago. I cautioned him that it might not work but we'd try. After putting new batteries in and turning it on nothing happened. After a little pit of fiddling with the remote levers it intermittently went backwards, and after a while backwards with relative reliability and intermittentlly forwards. But no steering control.

My R/C is 10 times the truck as his for strength, quality of materials, workmanship and detail. I would really like to get it operating reliably again. It has a 2 speed gear box, not just high speed like the new ones. One of the reasons my Dad let me buy it, it can go slow so I don't run into stuff in the house. It would have been bought from Radio Shack in around 1988 or 1989. If anyone has any experience with them and wants to share it would be greatly appreciated. I am thinking with the problems I was having with forward and backwards that the issue may be in the transmitter. Is there any way to find out if the transmitter is transmitting? And who would I talk to or where would I go for that? It operates somewhere around the 27MHz frequency, would a HAM operater be able to see, or hear, interference on his radio when I operate the controls?
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hammermill
Posts: 2938
Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:43 pm
Location: pendleton or

Re: R/C Monster Truck

Post by hammermill »

The world of rc has changed a lot everything is at much higher frequencies.
Boards exist that can be controlled via Bluetooth on a tablet, a arduieno with a motor shield and com board may do the trick and could be a way to teAch junior electronics.
hammermill
Posts: 2938
Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:43 pm
Location: pendleton or

Re: R/C Monster Truck

Post by hammermill »

here is a example these kit are used as part of teaching roboits,programing,building etc

http://www.dx.com/p/arduino-compatible- ... NqQtzaIaUk
redneckalbertan
Posts: 1274
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2012 10:39 am
Location: South Central Alberta

Re: R/C Monster Truck

Post by redneckalbertan »

That looks interesting. I hadn't thought about changing/upgrading the electronics.

I've read a little bit about the arduino boards but had no clue that they had this ability.
hammermill
Posts: 2938
Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:43 pm
Location: pendleton or

Re: R/C Monster Truck

Post by hammermill »

another approach may be to look at tower hobbies the cost of new rc controllers and such is not all that high .
redneckalbertan
Posts: 1274
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2012 10:39 am
Location: South Central Alberta

Re: R/C Monster Truck

Post by redneckalbertan »

Well I have decided to do nothing. Since digging it out and playing with it with my Son, He has regularly asked to play with it, driving it back and forth in a straight line. Today he was playing with it and all of a sudden it turned. So I investigated and the turn control would work intermittently, after a short period of use it started working reliably again. As long as it is working I will leave it as is and play with it. If it quits working I will look at doing something else.
redneckalbertan
Posts: 1274
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2012 10:39 am
Location: South Central Alberta

Re: R/C Monster Truck

Post by redneckalbertan »

The end result; my boy is loving it, and driving it again is jogging the memory and I'm rememberin times from years gone by!
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