04-27-2003, 12:44 PM
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I process, therefore I am
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Savannah, GA USA
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Custom Zip PICs
Finally got the ole scanner fired up and put these PICs together. They aren't the best quality, but it's the best I can do for now. First is a SUV type truck.
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04-27-2003, 01:00 PM
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I process, therefore I am
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Savannah, GA USA
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Here are my rag tops. You can also see the spring antennae that I use. These, combined with an antenna from a set of TV rabbit ears on the controller are giving me ranges over 200ft even on the 27 Mhz cars.
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04-27-2003, 01:17 PM
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I process, therefore I am
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Savannah, GA USA
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And, last in this humble series, but certainly not least, is my ambulance. The headlights and taillights glow red and it has LEDs on top that flash alternately back and forth. I wanted to use white or blue LEDs for the headlights, but just couldn't get the juice I needed to power everything from one battery. The red LEDs still look good running around the track, so I'm still satisfied. The antenna is the same spring but designed to fit inside the body. The SUV uses this same technique. The body can be detached from the chassis completely via a tiny connector. The yellow arrows point to the power switch. It is hidden nicely in the rear passenger side window. The green paint is what I had lying around at the time. It gives the ambulance a semi military look.
I almost forgot, the tires and rims are from a toy I've had in my junk box for years. They give the vehicle a nice custom look. I still plan to detail the rims and add more decals.
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Last edited by Azimov; 04-27-2003 at 01:21 PM.
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04-27-2003, 04:27 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Illinois, USA
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Nice Cars
Quote:
Originally posted by Azimov
You can also see the spring antennae that I use. These, combined with an antenna from a set of TV rabbit ears on the controller are giving me ranges over 200ft even on the 27 Mhz cars.
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Hey Azimov,
Excellent work! I really like the body work and custom wheels!
I've got a couple questions for you...
1. Where did you find the SUV?
2. Would you explain, in detail, your spring antenna and rabbit ear mod? ( 200 ft!!! )
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04-27-2003, 05:07 PM
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love the suv. all i wanna know is how did u get the lights to flash alternatly? can u post a link to the schimatic if u did it yoself or did u pull it outta some toy if so what kind (or was it stock on the ambulance)
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04-27-2003, 05:52 PM
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I process, therefore I am
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The SUV is from a box of fire and police vehicles sold by Wal-Mart at Christmas time. The whole plastic set was 10.00, but I picked it up for 3.00 after Xmas. It had several police vehicles, including the SUV and a couple of caprice cars that I still plan to use. The ambulance body came in this set as well, but it was a blue and white police paddy wagon. The fire engines are too small to use for zips as are the fire chief type vehicles. All of the police vehicles work great though.
The antenna mod is pretty simple. The spring is used in place of the existing wire on the cars. If stretched out completely, they would be around 2 ft long. The antenna used on the controller is from the free rabbit ears you get with new TVs these days. Just two antennae hooked to a triangular piece of plastic with wires hanging off. I seperated the unit into the two seperate antenas and swapped them for the stock antenna in the controller. The TV antennas are about 3 ft long. The range is unreal with this setup.
The flashing circuit is called a Bicore often used in BEAM robotics circuits. You can find a schematic if you use a search engine and type in BEAM or Bicore. I just hooked LEDs to it instead of motors. The flash rate and on time of the LEDs can be adjusted to suit using this circuit.
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Last edited by Azimov; 04-27-2003 at 06:01 PM.
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04-27-2003, 05:56 PM
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cool so far the only shimatics i've seen work wit high voltage and i'm too lazy to figure it out to work on a bit but ya i'll search for beam and bicore (now i have plans for future mods)
EDIT. this one http://www.beam-online.com/Robots/Circuits/bicore.html
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Last edited by dabigpig; 04-27-2003 at 06:10 PM.
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04-27-2003, 06:22 PM
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Springs
Thanks for the info!
Will any spring work? What did you use?
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04-27-2003, 11:34 PM
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I process, therefore I am
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EDIT. this one http://www.beam-online.com/Robots/Circuits/bicore.html [/b][/quote]
Yup, that's the circuit. Just replace the motor with two LEDs. Hook one LED to the two leads that are going to the motor in the circuit. Then, hook a second LED to the same place with the polarity switched. That's how this circuit works. It switches the polarity to the motor making it turn back and forth. When you hook two LEDs to it with one reversed, the circuit flashes one, switches polarity, and lights the other alternitavely. You could also hook a dual LED to this circuit and have one light that alternates between red and green. Try different values for the resistor at the top of the circuit. This lengthen or shortens the time between the pulses. The two small capacitors control the duration of the pulse itself. Normally, a value of .22uF is used. I'm using something in the 6 Meg Ohms range for the biasing resistor and the usual cap value of .22uF.
I don't remember where I got the springs. They are very thin and flexible. Any spring will do if it would roughly be 2ft or more in length when stretched out. Just seperate the coils slightly so they don't touch.
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04-28-2003, 12:13 AM
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ok i'm a little lost here do i use this one:
or buy the ic and make this one:
HERE it shows it being used with the ic
can u point me in the right direction plz
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04-28-2003, 01:10 AM
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I process, therefore I am
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Dabigpig,
The top schematic is the basic bicore. It's whats goin on inside the IC. Yup, you need to buy the IC and hook it up like the 2nd component schematic. Replace the motor "M" with the two LEDs. The whole deal needs a 3VDC button cell to operate and the LEDs need to be the low voltage type. The link you have there at the bottom points to a tutorial on freeforming the Bicore. Just be mindful of the error in the tutorial. You can do the tutorial straight on the chip and skip the IC socket to save space. I have my own method for freeforming the circuit, but just follow the component schematic and breadboard first to check your components.
BTW, any flavor of 240 chip will do. There is a 74hc240, a 74hct240, and a 74ac240. The hct is probably the most common and can be found at Rat Shack.
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If it ain't broke, tear it apart and see what makes it tick!
Last edited by Azimov; 04-28-2003 at 01:25 AM.
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04-28-2003, 10:18 AM
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Tortured Primate
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Texas
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that spring u used for the antenna...did you make it yourself? if so out of what kind of wire? did you see a boost in range without the bigger antenna on the controller? i mean with only the spring antenna.
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04-28-2003, 11:44 AM
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cool that's what i thought need to look around at radio shack see if i can find it. ummmm the chip looks awfully bigger than a 555 timer and that's what i was thinking of using before i saw this post. but it looks easyer to control the speed of the pulses and stuff with yours so that's what i'm probably going to use.
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04-28-2003, 11:49 AM
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I process, therefore I am
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The spring was found in something, I can't remember where. I just straightened one end until I had enough straight wire to attach to the PCB and stretch across the top of the PCB cover. I also glued a small piece of wire insulation to the back of the PCB cover standing up. Just a quarter inch or so. This let me slip the bottom coils of the spring over the insulation so the spring stands straight up. Yup, there is a noticeable improvement with just adding the spring antenna. Any small flexible spring will do. It just needs to be around 18-24inches long if you stretch it out all the way. I judged the length by cutting one about 2 inches long and stretching it out completely and measuring again. With the springs I used, about an inch and a half of spring equaled 24 inches when stretched.
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02-25-2005, 01:11 PM
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Thrasher
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 191
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With that circuit, if you replace that R1 with a VR can you dial in the flash rate?
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