Sunday, September 2, 2012

Winning "Jet" Powered Pinewood Derby Car

I finally had an opportunity to participate in a 'no holds barred' pinewood derby for grownups. The annual competition does have some standing by-laws, however.

  1. No open flame or explosions
  2. Any car leaving the track will be disqualified
  3. No sabotaging the other vehicles during the race

Being new to the area, and new to the competition, I set out to at least compete for the fastest car. After spending many hours finishing unpacking my garage to clear out a space to build a car, I had about 4 hours before the competition. I grabbed my tools and set to work.

The Design

Originally, I wanted to use the bell of an outrunner electric motor as the drive wheel, but I knew I did not have enough time to design and build such a pinewood derby car. So, I decided to salvage the parts from an old RC airboat (that didn't work so well) I had collecting dust in my garage.

The Chassis

The Materials

  1. 1/8" Scrap Plywood from the Homely Despot (they usually have scrap wood in the back of the lumber section that you can pick up for pennies on the dollar
  2. 1/2" Square Hardwood Dowel - Your local hardware store probably has 2ft lengths for about a dollar
  3. 3/8" Square Hardwood Dowel - same as the 1/2" dowel
  4. Small Self Tapping Wood Screws
  5. Pinewood derby Wheels and 'Axles' - You can substitute other wheels if you please
  6. 9x4x4mm ball bearing
  7. M4 bolt
  8. M4 nuts

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Cheap Source for Arduino Uno and Arduino Mega

Of all places, Hobbyking has a bunch of super cheap Arduino hardware. Probably the cheapest source you can find for these boards. Awesome! They even have a couple shields, if you know where to look.