RC RF help and questions?

I know there are existing threads about this topic but the one I wanted to see, the photos were not visible. I want to install a remote controlled ranger finder. I have one installed from mobius on the Boba Hemet I bought from him but I want to try a different helmet of my own. I understand I need a servo as well as the remote board and remote controller. The thread that had the photos used to show the wiring details but the photos was not there last time I looked. It was an older thread.

Questions:

Is there a good car I can get at Wal-Mart? I saw a motorworks mini car for like $9.88. Will this work?

I have seen others talk about the zipzap from RC but the controller itself is fairly large and they are $19.99.

There are many different servo's out there but I am not sure of the difference or which one would do. I am putting this in my Rubies Custom Jango and it should not be to heavy. I might get a LED kit from Bobo if he can get the backordered parts. Can someone recommend an adaquate servo and maybe wiring details?

If you're talking about trying to see the pics from my tutorial, I've taken them down. The entire tutorial is now on my website:

http://www.geocities.com/jedi_midyan/rcrf.html

Hope it helps.
As to your questions:
So long as the Motorworks car is about the size of a matchbox car than it should work fine.
And the zipzap controller is large when it is in it's case. If you take the time to dismantle it you will find that you can fit it into many places including your belt or gauntlet.

As for a servo this one should do fine so long as you dont have a huge head:

http://servocity.com/html/hs-311_standard.html

hope all this helps.

Excellent! Thank you!

krillindb wrote:
As to your questions:
So long as the Motorworks car is about the size of a matchbox car than it should work fine.

They are the size of a matchbox car.

Has anyone tried wiring them up with the rechargable batteries like the ones that come in remote control cars?

http://servocity.com/html/batteries.html

I'm not sure if anyone has but they should work just like any other battery. Just make sure you don't exceed the 3 volt limit(2 AA or 2 AAA batteries).
Glad I could help

Ok got the servo and the RC board. It is not axactly the same but very similar. The servo had 3 wires coming out of it and the diagram only shows 2. I have not been able to get it to work. This is what I have:

4 wires on the RC board, Yellow,green, Red and White. 3 wires on the servo, yellow, Red, Black. Itried connecting the servo directly to the battery pack but still got nothing?

Anyone help!!!

If you look at the tutorial it tells you that when I built mine I opened and removed everything but the gears and motor from the inside of my servo. After that you simply wire the board to the 2 connections on the motor itself.

Lemme know if you need further explanation.

This particular servo you recommended says it runs 4.8v - 6v. I think the 2 AA batteries are not enought to power it. I will try to get another battery holder from RS tomorrow and see if there is any change. The instructions that came with the servo says the black wire is the ground, red is power and the yellow is signal. So if I connect red to red on the battery holders and the servo and black to black it should run. If so I will try to get ther RC board to work.

Why did you take other parts out of the servo?

I removed the other stuff from the servo because in this case it is completely unneeded. It also allowed me to cut away partt of the servo so that my head could still fit in my helmet/

2 batteries should work fine on your servo even though it says 4.8 volts. Mine was a 4.8 volt servo and it works just fione on 2 AAA's. DO NOT use more than 2 batteries on that board. Like I've said before, they have a 4 volt limit. 3 batteries would bring the voltage up to 4.5 volts, .5 volts too much. If you do put that much in the board will blow out and you could potentially blow out the servo in the process.

Just gut the servo like I instructed. Just be careful. All that other stuff in the servo is not needed, just the gears(for torque) and the motor(to actually turn the RF). You could also open the servo and wire directly to the motor without removing the other stuff if you don't feel comfortable taking it apart completely.

Ok this is getting to confusing. I opened the servo and all I see is gears, nothing else to remove.

I removed a 4 gears but there was nothing else. Just a circuit board on the bottom. I could not even get to the motor.
This servo says it runs in a range of 4.8 - 6v. 2 AA batteries only adds up to 3V. Forgetting about the RC board for now I have attached Black on the Battery pack to black on the servo, Red on battery pack to Red on servo, when I touch the yellow (signal)wire to the 2 reds the servo moves a tiny but and stops. If I take it off and touch it again it again moves a tiny tiny but but not in a continuos motion. Just makes noise for a second and stopps. I have tried with both 2 AA and 4AA's with the same result. Can anyone tlls me what is going wrong???

To reiderate, it does not matter how much voltage goes through that servo. that is essentially the same servo i have.

About how you opened the servo. You opened the wrong end. Open the other end and remove all the wires and the little circuitboard, you should see the back of the motor. On the back of the motor are 2 little "balls" these balls are solder points. Unsolder any wires that are already attached. Solder 1 new wire on each of the solder points. then you can solder it to the rc board.

The reason it is only moving a tiny bit is because of the little circuit board inside. Servos are generally used in conjunction with a special circuit board that controls its movement. One of the reasons you remove the board is so that you don't have to worry about a seperate board.

Hope that helps.

The other side will not open. It is soddered to the motor.

I can lift one side and see 3 wires, red, green,yellow soddered to another point.

I do not see any other parts. Is this circuit board needed? I can snap it off to get to the motor but was afraid to do so not knowing if I needed that board. I do not have a soddering gun right now.

As I have said a couple of times already, no the circuit board is not needed. Then you can solder the RC board to the motor and then put the servo back together. Just make sure you do not wipe the grease off of the gears. It is needed so that the servo will run properly.

wow that's interesting, i've never seen a servo like that. Try and unsolder it.

I got some help from mobius in understanding what to do. I touched the red and black cables from the battery pack to the 2 soddered spots on the bottom and the servo moves. Now I just have to figure out what wires do what on the RC board since they are difeerent colors that the one you had. There is no black cable so I am not sure which wires go to what.

Pm sent

Ok, I have rewired all 4 wires from the RC board and connected it to the batteries and the bottom of the motor. The remote will only go one direction. The down button works but the up button does nothing ?????

Anyone have any recommendations??

All I can suggest is that you swap the motor wires. If that doesnt work it could be an issue with the board.

hey, i have the same servo. i just went to my local hobby store, and bought a servo that had some power behind it. anyway, i had the same problem. i soon got mad, and fustrated with it, so, i quit for about a week. i am picking it up now, and i think i know where i went wrong. i was trying to hook it up to the board. now, i know that i don't need the board. i'll let you know how my progress goes. hey, by the way, can i desouder the wires from the RC circuit board, and souder some longer wires to it????....ya know, i don't want to mess anything up....like, put too heave of a wire, and blow the whole thing up. just wanted some longer wire to play with.
~Michael

when I reverse the wires it doen't turn either way. I will have to buy a new remote control car and try it.

You can desoddder the wires and put stronger ones on. Mobius suggested that to me.

thanks for the wire help. i hope you will get your servo working. you see, i can take my battery pack, and place it on the motor prongs. the servo will turn one way. i swich the wires and the servo turnes the other way. so, i know my servo works, i just need to find out how to wire it up. its very stressfull. keep me posted.
~Michael

very stresful indead. I went to Wal-Mart today and bought the motorworks car for $9.88. Took it apart and wired it up. After playing with the wires and almost giving up I finally got it to work. It will go both ways and this one even had a red LED wired to the board and lights up when it moves. It also has one xtra white wire which was not used and I am unsure what it went to but I obviously don't need it. I have not figured out how to make use of the LED yet but it is working now. I am glueing screws into the helmet like Mobius did on the Boba helmet I bought from him.

The white wire could be the anntenna, don´t remove it.I found out if I removed it the rc would not work. I installed the radio cotrol board in side the barrell of my blaster so it is needed to make it work 100%

Excellent. I'm glad to hear that it worked.

well, i am going to try it again. wish me luck!!!
~Michael

mobius wrote:
The white wire could be the anntenna, don´t remove it.I found out if I removed it the rc would not work. I installed the radio cotrol board in side the barrell of my blaster so it is needed to make it work 100%

No, there was also a long black wire which was the annetenna.

hey, does anyone have any PICS of how to connect the Servo to the Range Finder? any help will be great. thanks.
~Michael