Produced by Big Data Digest
Author: Da Jieqiong
After Children’s Day, a wave of nostalgia articles about childhood toys has swept through.
Speaking of childhood companions, the one I miss the most is “Four-Wheel Brothers”. This 1996 Japanese manga has planted the seed of “racing driver” in countless car enthusiasts.
That phrase “Go, Strong Stick Sonic!” became the favorite catchphrase of countless boys back then and sparked a wave of racing toys like “Audi Double Diamond”.
Recently, a programmer on Bilibili known as “Miao Ge” has single-handedly integrated voice recognition and 3D printing into a regular four-wheel car, transforming the yellowed car shell from childhood into a voice-controlled version of the “Super Strong Four-Wheel Car”.
After the modification, this car can not only control speed through volume but also directly issue commands to make the car turn or spin, completely realizing the dream of my childhood: voice-controlled four-wheel car.
When Miao Ge shouts “Five O’clock”, the Sonic really turns.
However, since the car and the person cannot be too far apart, once they are too far, the car cannot receive commands, so the person must run with the car, which perfectly recreates the scenes from Four-Wheel Brothers👇
Look at this cool scene, it really makes many uncles and aunts who had the “Strong Stick Sonic” dream cry with envy. Miao Ge has also been dubbed Bilibili’s “Dr. Tuchiya”!
UP Master homepage:
According to Miao Ge, he currently has three four-wheel cars that can be started: Jump Charge, Strong Stick Sonic, and Whirlwind Charge. They are the basic remote-controlled Whirlwind Charge, the voice-controlled Jump Charge, and the voice-controlled remote-controlled Strong Stick Sonic.
Finally, Miao Ge stated that he cannot be happy alone, so all the source code, including the required 3D printing source files, are also uploaded on GitHub for open source for everyone.
Source code link👇
What steps are needed to have a flying version of “Strong Stick Sonic”?
What steps are needed to have a flying version of “Strong Stick Sonic”?
This project originated when Miao Ge found a yellowed Whirlwind Charge car shell while sorting through old items. He felt that he could not abandon his childhood companion and hoped to recreate the Whirlwind Charge!
1. 3D Model Design
1. 3D Model Design
First, let’s look at the first step, designing the 3D model.
Miao Ge used Solidworks to design and model the four-wheel car. Since the childhood four-wheel car he found only had a shell, he needed to create most of the modules apart from the shell. If he wanted to achieve a voice-controlled four-wheel car, some parts needed to be drawn and printed by himself.
Solidworks 2020 can connect to a 3D printer, which is a feature of the latest version. Moreover, it can slice 3D geometric shapes and store material, texture, and 2D slice data.
Next, 3D printing technology was used to print the car body, wheels, and other accessories.
Printed car body.
Once the car body is printed, the next step is circuit connection.
2. Circuit Connection
2. Circuit Connection
After completing the 3D printing, the car body needs to be modified for circuits.
Miao Ge indicated that this part is crucial, requiring the use of Altium Designer for PCB design and KELLuVision for microcontroller programming.
The control method is a remote control hanging on the chest for voice recognition, based on wireless transmission, sending different voice control commands to the car’s receiver.
The remote control hanging on the chest has button designs, allowing for both voice control and button use.
The car mainly has an Arduino board, a motor driver circuit MX1508, and requires the design of a wireless module NRF24101.
The car’s receiver has an STM32 microcontroller, which acts as a microcontroller, similar to the GP chip in cartoons.
The principle of the receiver is to adjust the PWM duty cycle based on different commands. Since two signals correspond to one motor, the car has two motors, and the motor speed is controlled by changing the PWM duty cycle.
Using Arduino Nano was chosen. The microcontroller includes a 51 microcontroller and Arduino. Arduino is an open-source hardware platform, a term for a type of hardware board based on AVR microcontrollers, along with the familiar STM32. Although STM32 is very powerful, it is not very friendly to beginners, so to better complete the reconstruction of the voice-controlled racing car, Arduino was used to build it. This way, the rich open-source and supporting software can increase the chances of success.
Purchase an LD3320 chip and start drawing the PCB circuit board.
The remote control side needs to be connected, and before doing voice control, button debugging is also required.
Then use two NRF24L01 wireless modules to connect them, one of which Arduino also needs to be equipped with a motor driver chip and two motors. Finally, using a breadboard, battery, and male-female header wire, it can be assembled together.
The breadboard has holes to fix the Arduino Nano and connect it with wires and other components.
Next, download Arduino IDE, using this software to program the Arduino, which can be downloaded from the Chinese community of Arduino. After downloading, it can be used for programming, program burning, and serial debugging operations.
Since the NRF24L01 wireless module needs to be used, a Mirf library also needs to be added to Arduino.
Even if you don’t know C language, there’s no need to worry. Just input the twenty lines of code from the code file, and it will run. If it’s a humanoid code output machine, you can also modify the code to add modules.
The main thing is to read the level signals on D2-D6 through the Digitalread function. When the level signal is low, different digital connections can be sent. Using the high and low levels from different motors to achieve turning and forward motion modes. After writing the program, it needs to be connected to the computer to download the program to the remote control, receiver, and Arduino board.
3. Assembly and Testing
3. Assembly and Testing
Finally, it’s time to install the components together.
After installation, write the program to the control board. After writing the program, testing can begin.
From the video, it can be seen that when Miao Ge shouts “Eight O’clock Direction”, the four-wheel car really turns, and the Sonic’s response speed is quite fast.
“Strong Stick Sonic, let’s go!” As soon as the words fell, yes! The car really flew up!
Overall, this four-wheel car has indeed successfully achieved the function of being controlled by sound, not only can it spin in place but also turn and accelerate (veteran skill).
Netizen Comments: Childhood Truly Does Not Deceive Me!
Some students also expressed that this technology can apply for professional, one-stop production and sales, stepping onto the peak of life.
Finally, I also tried to find out who Miao Ge is, but apart from the introduction on his profile stating he is an engineering guy, and his appearance in the video, nothing else was mentioned. However, from such comprehensive equipment, it can be seen that he is not an ordinary person. Some netizens said they saw most of the applications of an automation major in the short video, and I can only say he is truly a treasure UP master!
It is said that Miao Ge will continue to develop interesting projects, with the latest preview being a hand-drawn printed brand new four-wheel car. Yes, Miao Ge is preparing to go dark, starting a magnificent series of modifications by the great doctor, and I will continue to keep an eye on it!
Reference link:
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