Hey Community , i really don't do enough fun projects. As you may notice many of my projects have a utility function. Squeegee mops, jarvis vacuums, smart marine fish tank is... well smart lol. So this is just for fun and I hope others enjoy it. I have already contemplated using it as a demonstration tool to get kids interested in technology. . Dang it! This is just for fun , ok I'll try not to get to serious with this. My friend Marty was talking about being able to drive the power wheels around while his kid was in it around the neighborhood. Or if his kid was driving and got to far he's just a button click away from stopping it. We found a free power wheels that had seen some rough years and we gave it a complete makeover. It looks better than new, new Gel cells from power sonic , smart charging and more. I gave it a cool high grass stripe camo.pattern and gave it to his son for his birthday. I'll post a couple pics. He's on the fence about doing the further mods so i searched craigslist.org for another power wheels that had been loved a little too hard. Searching for something with space and power I wanted I set my heart on a f150 , Toyota 4x or jeep 4x4. I didn't find a 4x4 model but f150 was the next best as it had dual gearboxes with rs585 motors. Also a good gel battery and charger was included. Here come some pics...
Other robots from Synthiam community
Bret's Roborad
DJ's Cyborg Snowman
For now I'm using the servo city 400 servo gearbox with a 7 to 1 ratio in my B9's robot arm and it's pretty slow. Less than normal human speed. I also am thinking about dropping to 5 to 1 but I may need the torque. We'll see soon. I'm not sure you'll be happy with the speed of the 7 to 1 when used for steering. I'm looking forward to seeing how it performs for you.
There may be trial and error , if needed I can swap to 5 to 1 and put two in tandem. I took a look at the steering and it appears that 4 inch travel is the movement lock to lock, left to right. I do hope and cross my fingers that this is plenty to make the steering movements. The only other option I can think of is a linear actuator with modifications to act like a servo but that runs 300 dollars for a 100 pound actuator.
SPG785A ServoCity.com Top Mount servo Gearbox: http://youtu.be/2aYheb8mFC8
Here is the gearbox demonstration from servo city. My servo is a tiny bit faster than this one and digital. The full range of movement should be between 100 and 120 degrees of servo rotation.
I dropped by home depot and got lucky. I found stainless steel polished tube that slides right into my grease bearing sleeve. I believe it even may be long enough to replace the original aluminum rear axle as well so that the suspension will flex much less under weight.
The stainless tube costs 9 dollars and some change. So if I need a second one I won't break the bank.
I checked the length on the steel tube and it's a tiny bit longer than the original. This gives me the option to make the wheelbase a couple inches wider as well. This is another happy surprise !
So I need to solve two problems.
Ok, so I picked up the zinc coated threaded rod , nuts and washers. It is 12 inches in length so I will cut it into 4 equal sections, 3 inches long each.
Wow you are making some progress.