Close

433 MHz Radio: A Quick and Dirty Work-Around

A project log for Electric Longboard

Can we build a great board for under $400 in less than 3 weeks? (using a few pre-made kit parts)

dudeskidaddydudeskidaddy 06/21/2016 at 21:260 Comments

Wanted to start riding. The hardware was done and we couldn't wait to get the NRF2401 based remote control working. So we spent a day building and getting a these super cheap 433 Mhz radios to communicate a simple integer value signal (throttle position 0-180) from our remote control Arduino Nano to our broad's Nano which would then control the motor speed via a separate PWM signal. Again, the idea is the skateboard-based arduino will slowly spool up/dn based on throttle position so we don't fall off, even if the radio link is lost (which happens a lot), the board's micro will just slowly spool down the motor rather that cut off all at once. (Note: We want to try this ourselves using cheap off the shelf ESC. (A $150 VESC would take care of all this spool up/dn, breaking and more...waiting for ours on backorder)

OK so, the 433 RF works! Took a while and figured out a few things.

Here is a working bench remote control setup.

Here is our first grand day out...That's rattling sound is the aluminum battery box cover..got to put a gasket on that thing. Now that we know how this behaves, we'll be increasing the accretion and top speed.


Discussions