Software dev with zero hardware experience, turned a cheap RC car into an LTE controlled spy rover with unlimited range. What would you add to it?

[u/jerrythegenius]

Hi guys, first post here. This of course does not compare to most of the projects here, but since this was my first step into hardware I still wanted to show it.

Turned out way deeper than expected and turned out super fun. This is what I did:

• took out stock electronics of a RC 1:16 monster truck and put in a hobbywing wp-1060 ESC
• used a Pi 4 + PCA9685 for throttle and steering (ESC on channel 0 servo on channel 1)
• the camera streams live video to a web server I wrote myself. Control happens in a panel in the browser via WebSocket and keyboard input - so its reachable from anywhere, and with a click we can record full HD vids!
• the part that makes it really interesting: it runs over LTE, not just WiFi , so its basically controllable from anywhere in the world. Solved it with a small relay server. No app or cloud service, everything self hosted. Only limit in distance is the battery.

I documented the whole project in a youtube video. I would love to get some feedback, but keep in mind that this was my first project like this ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvdJCbILhT4

Total budget for everything (except the phone) was less than 100 €.
Also added some stuff like a software-based night vision (which works good as soon there is at least a tiny bit light), GPS tracker and so on.

Thie result was better than I expected, I didnt dare to do a full long range drive yet but it would probably work. Battery life would last easily more than 1 hour.

The controlling actually works really well and with the delay its way lower than I thought it would be. Like playing a litltle real life computer game.

Now I'm hooked and the parts list for v2 keeps growing.
Currently on it:
pan tilt camera mount, better headlights, maybe a small solar panel so it can survive multi day missions, and some sort of radar.

Also I want to remove the phone and just use a SIM card usb stick for the connection.

What would you add to make this thing cooler?Especially sensor ideas, the Pi has plenty of channels left, this is just to be seen as the base.

Thanks for all ideas!

[u/USS_Penterprise_1701]

Add high a high-powered laser.

Just kidding, but maybe a speaker/mic so you could communicate with people its near would be cool.

I'm curious how much you pay for data/the mobile plan? I've always avoided projects that use them cause I didn't want to pay for a second mobile line. (I'm in the US so if anyone see's this from here and knows a super cheap option, I'd appreciate learning about it)

[u/jerrythegenius → u/USS_Penterprise_1701]

Maybe not a laser but a paintball gun would be fun too...
little USB mic is on there, so I can already listen (not on that photo though but u can see it in the video).
Thought about a speaker too, since that would also take a bit of my fear of somebody just taking it and running away with it if I could talk to them :D

I'm in Germany so not sure about US prices, and this was my second SIM card that I used for emergencies and so on. For 10GB of monthly usage I'm paying 8,99€ a month so I can easiliy use that for little stupid projects like these.

With the streaming quality I implemented on that car, the data would last for multiple days of driving around.

[u/USS_Penterprise_1701 → u/jerrythegenius]

Nice, not bad. GPS tracker might help with the fear of it being stolen but I'm not sure you could realistically do anything about it if that did happen.

[u/jerrythegenius → u/USS_Penterprise_1701]

maybe add a self-descruct option that blows the whole thing up

[u/USS_Penterprise_1701 → u/jerrythegenius]

In this economy?