Hack - Power Trakk

Goal: To hack (modify) a toy 27Mhz radio remote control into a data transmitter and receiver.

This project is based on the June 2004 issue of Servo Magazine (SERVO 06.2004, pg 20) article "Hack This Budget Airplane for Inexpensive Robot Communication" by L. Paul Verhage.

I found the Echo Toys Power Trakk at a local K.B Toys. It looked like an I deal toy to hack. The price was only $9.99. It was radio remote controlled. It had a track drive. The packaging said it could spin so I was betting that it had independent left and right track drives. And it's dimensions, Length = 6.75" x Width = 5.25" x Height = 2.5", were a good size for a microcontroller.

As a toy I was not overly impressed with it. Once you turned the power on both the port and starboard tracks were in continuous forward motion. If you ran the toy on the carpet the track of the track drive would easily come off. When you pressed the one button on the remote control the toy would reverse the port track and the toy would spin. When you let go of the button the port track would go back into forward motion and the toy would go off in the direction it happened to be pointed towards.

I was impressed with what was under the hood. Each track is independently driven by a motor and 20:1 gear set. It should be possible to correct the problem that causes the tracks to fall off and mount a platform to the track drive.

Block diagram of test rig:

PC1 > Mark III > Transmitter > Receiver > HWB > PC2

Steps:

Create schematic of receiver and verify with multimeter and oscilloscope.
Reconnect receiver without motor and test tentative output points.
Condition selected output point for digital output.
Connect receiver to microcontroller (Parellax Homework Board)
Create schematic of transmitter and verify
Replace switch with conditioned logic input.
Test data rates and ranges.

Receiver Schematic and electricals

If you have any questions or comments about this page please email me at: debots_replacethis_dinkdaze.org with at sign.