Hi my name is Edward and I am going into my sophomore year at Columbia High School. My starter project was the MintyBoost and my main project the RC Car which I like to call the Vanysphere. I attended BSE NYC 2013.
Final Vanysphere Blog Post
Today I am here to talk about my project and tell you about all the cool fun new modifications I have made to it as well as recap the work I have done with the arduiono. My arduino was a very challenging thing to learn about at first but in the end it turned out to be quite easy when I found arduino tutorials and videos to learn about it online. Attached to the arduino are two different breadboards located on either side of my van. On one side, there is a panel of leds that blink on the other side, the leds fade from bright to faint and back again to bright. Coding this took three days of hard work. I actually wound up enjoying programming a lot and hope to do more of it again. Below is my schematic for my arduino.
The first thing that comes to mind and coolest is the spinning satellite. My friend was using an xbox controller for his project but it broke so he was going to throw it out but I asked him if I could use it for parts. He said it would be great. I took the thing that makes the remote vibrate. I attached something to it that was 3d printed that looked like a satellite. I added a switch to it so I could turn it on and off. I used the arduino’s power supply. In the end it looked pretty cool. Then I wanted to add some cool and artistic modifications.
The first cool and artistic modification was a bumper straight out of any spy movie. It is big and metal and looks like it could plow through a house. The second modifications was the death screws. They are screws that stick out on the sides and protect it from bashing. They may not be the most engineered modification, but still they look cool and add artistic value to the project. The next modifications were for protection so that if I crashed not all my led’s or my fan would break. I used little red caps that were longer than the leds so if i were to slam it into the wall they would take the hit not the electrics.
My last two modifications are some of the coolest ever. The first one that every great spy van has to have is a laser. I mounted a laser to the front of my van used a 3.5 volt power pack to power it and put a huge switch on top so I could turn it on and off. The last and definitely not least is the blinky grid. The blinky grid is a grid of led’s. The led’s make sentences using programming. This was a challenge for me because not only was it hard to build but it was hard to code but in the end it worked out. Thanks you all for following my blog I hoped you enjoyed it.
Please check out my final video where I talk more about my van and have it run!
Here is an excel doc of all the materials I used.
The Prep Van
Hi my name is Edward, I am building a modified rc car. Recently I finished mounting my arduino to the top of my rc car. I only temporarily mounted it since I do not wish to have the parts vulnerable in the end. Then I mounted the mintyboost to the top of the car so that my arduino had a portable power supply. Lastly I assembled both side led panels and programmed them on fade. The tricky part was figuring out how to put two pins to the same program. In the end I figured it out. I used two sides of a breadboard, that I dismounted from a breadboard. Thank you for reading.
Watch my funny but technical vid!!
MINTYBOOST
Hi my name is Edward and I go to BlueStamp. At BlueStamp I built a mintyboost. It was my starter project. The mintyboost charges your phone. The way it works is by taking the 3 volts that you receive from two aa batteries and boosts it to 5 volts which is required to charge your phone. The reason it is called the “mintyboost” is that the components all fit in a mint box. The project was a lot of fun and it taught me some valuable things. I learned how to solder, how to fix a wire that is stuck in solder, and the great feeling of completing a project.
