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how to turn and stop a toy car?

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jjd58

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hi there..i am doing a project that needs to *TURN* a toy car 90 degrees to the right when it reaches a fixed junction and the car is moving on a track. Any suggestion on that? Besides, i need ideas on making it *STOP* at a certain specified location too..Please help me...any ideas will do...please..

P/s the toy car is battery operated..( can sensor be used? if can, what kind of sensor? )

Thanks..
 
Is this a mechanical or an electronic question? At the risk of being obvious you turn by changing the direction of the wheels. Servo motors are often used for this purpose. The motors respond to a modulated pulse. When the control pulse is at its nominal width the motor is positioned at the midpoint of its travel. Make the pulse shorter than its nominal width and the motor turns CCW. Make the pulse longer than its nominal width and the motor turns CW. The mechanical linkage to the wheels makes them go straight or turn.

To stop, you interrupt the power to the motor that is turning the drive wheels. You can do this with a relay, or a transistor.

There are many types of sensors that you could use, do you have any in mind?

Is this car going to be radio controlled or does it need to do this stuff automatically?
 
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the car must not be radio controlled....it must do the turning and stopping by itself. ( i think this project is more to mechanical...but i just need advice and ideas from u guys ) thanks papabravo..
 
OK, so it must have some kind of variable program. Given a start signal it moves forward for some distance, or time, or snesor input. Then it turns to the right, and continues for some additional distance, or time, or sensor input.

Depending on the amount of motion program storage a complicated program could be developed.

The servo motors used in radio control can be controlled without radios. They can be controlled with an ordinary microcontroller. I suggest you start by investigating those motors. Then I would look into drive motors. If you have any kind of R/C shop in your neighborhood I would spend an afternoon with those guys.

You might find it useful to get an R/C car or two for ideas and for a cheap source of parts.

Good Luck
 
Instead of using servos, you could use skidsteer, like a tank or bobcat does.
 
this is basically a robotics issue. you might want to look in the robotics section on this site or in any of another forums out there.

you don't say if there is any external help for the car to determine when it has actually turned 90 degrees (like a white line, for example) or where to start.

since this sounds like a class project, maybe you could post the assignment details so people won't go suggesting in random, unproductive directions. if it's not a class project, more detail of what you are trying to do would be in order.
 
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