speedbirdted
Legendary member
While on my walk home I stumbled upon this little guy, looking a bit sad and dejected...
And my immediate first thought was "Hey why don't I apply my excessive stockpile of brushless motors and other RC technology to this poor old clapped out Power Wheels car to transform it into a ridiculous self-destructive very unsafe donut machine?" Okay perhaps that wasn't my immediate thought, but that's what it spiraled into. Anyhow I came back with a car and took it home.
I'm also a member of the local makerspace in my community - essentially what this is is just a place where people can bring tools and other things and then for a membership fee people can use them at their discretion. Immediately I was bombarded with ideas about what to do with it upon bringing it there but the first order of business was of course disassembling it to thoroughly clean everything since it has spent an indeterminate amount of time outside and was as a result of that, filthy.
Here's a photo of the innards. It may look like an absolute nightmare in here, and to be fair it sort of is, but the actual physical damage that it had was surprisingly minimal, it's just super dirty. Someone also I believe painted this car matte black at some point as the original red color is very apparent on the inside. There's supposed to be a circuit board that plugs into the two connectors that run to the throttle and motor, and this was nowhere to be found but for reasons that will soon become apparent this is not a problem. The most significant damage is the hole in the floor but that shouldn't be hard to fix. Anyway, once I get my hands on a power washer all the disgusting crap on the inside will come off. Update in the future...
So what to do with it? Well... I have a few ideas. One, all the stock electronics are going to have to come out. Two 775 brushed motors isn't going to cut it. I have a motor from an electric scooter that's rated at about 5 kW that I'm going to figure out something to mount it in, and I have enough lipos lying around that I can probably power it too without having to buy any more. If all else fails I can just use a bunch of motorcycle batteries. I do need some sort of controller for it though, I'm not sure what the amp draw of the motor I have is (though I'll try and calculate) so I'm hesitant to blow anything up. I'll have to build a new rear axle too but that really shouldn't be too hard, I just need bearings to fit and a gear and chain to get power from the motor.
Do I want this to be practical in any way? NO! That's why I'm not going to change from the stock plastic wheels. I don't want the fastest power wheels car in the world, I want the stupidest one.
After I get it to move and drive semi-reliably, all modifications done after that will be in the interests of cosmetic or comedic purposes only. I've had suggestions such as mounting a gigantic subwoofer on the back, undercarriage lights, convert the thing into a hovercraft, mount a smoke ring cannon to it, all sorts of things. Everyone is welcome to share their ideas for dumb things to do with this, so fire away!
And my immediate first thought was "Hey why don't I apply my excessive stockpile of brushless motors and other RC technology to this poor old clapped out Power Wheels car to transform it into a ridiculous self-destructive very unsafe donut machine?" Okay perhaps that wasn't my immediate thought, but that's what it spiraled into. Anyhow I came back with a car and took it home.
I'm also a member of the local makerspace in my community - essentially what this is is just a place where people can bring tools and other things and then for a membership fee people can use them at their discretion. Immediately I was bombarded with ideas about what to do with it upon bringing it there but the first order of business was of course disassembling it to thoroughly clean everything since it has spent an indeterminate amount of time outside and was as a result of that, filthy.
Here's a photo of the innards. It may look like an absolute nightmare in here, and to be fair it sort of is, but the actual physical damage that it had was surprisingly minimal, it's just super dirty. Someone also I believe painted this car matte black at some point as the original red color is very apparent on the inside. There's supposed to be a circuit board that plugs into the two connectors that run to the throttle and motor, and this was nowhere to be found but for reasons that will soon become apparent this is not a problem. The most significant damage is the hole in the floor but that shouldn't be hard to fix. Anyway, once I get my hands on a power washer all the disgusting crap on the inside will come off. Update in the future...
So what to do with it? Well... I have a few ideas. One, all the stock electronics are going to have to come out. Two 775 brushed motors isn't going to cut it. I have a motor from an electric scooter that's rated at about 5 kW that I'm going to figure out something to mount it in, and I have enough lipos lying around that I can probably power it too without having to buy any more. If all else fails I can just use a bunch of motorcycle batteries. I do need some sort of controller for it though, I'm not sure what the amp draw of the motor I have is (though I'll try and calculate) so I'm hesitant to blow anything up. I'll have to build a new rear axle too but that really shouldn't be too hard, I just need bearings to fit and a gear and chain to get power from the motor.
Do I want this to be practical in any way? NO! That's why I'm not going to change from the stock plastic wheels. I don't want the fastest power wheels car in the world, I want the stupidest one.
After I get it to move and drive semi-reliably, all modifications done after that will be in the interests of cosmetic or comedic purposes only. I've had suggestions such as mounting a gigantic subwoofer on the back, undercarriage lights, convert the thing into a hovercraft, mount a smoke ring cannon to it, all sorts of things. Everyone is welcome to share their ideas for dumb things to do with this, so fire away!
