18v R/C controlled toy tank from cordless drill mtr??

[ainitfunny]

18v R/C controlled toy tank from cordless drill mtr??
How hard would it be to build an 18v Radio Controlled Toy tank from an 18V cordless variable speed drill motor and an ordinary remote controlled toy tank?

My thought was to create a low cost home-made remote control search and rescue robots (for citizen rescue teams to use) for collapsed building search and rescue after A MAJOR EARTHQUAKE where the 7 to 10 or 12 Professional teams that are normally available for such things prove to be disasterously inadequate to help dig out LIVING survivors at the potentially HUNDREDS of sites where our buried and trapped loved ones wait for help BEFORE THEY ACTUALLY DIE from exposure,DAYS without water or from relatively minor injuries that more prompt rescue could have averted. The professional rescue robots are either NOT SOLD (Lease only, with their people to run em) or EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE.(We are talking THOUSANDS of dollars)
I am trying to figure out how much the toy tank, screwdriver, wireless Video camera w/microphone and any other necessary accessories might run to home build. The reason I thought a toy tank would be good is they have a turret that rotates, which a camera could be mounted on, the track wheels and an ability to "shoot" a pellet which could be converted to a switch to activate some other function.

The reason for the 18v is that the toy will only run an hour at most on its low volt power supply.


Last edited by ainitfunny on 12-28-2003 at 08:01 AM

 

[The Mountain]

Errm, it's not just the voltage, it's the watts in the power supply that make the difference.

example: the battery pack in a polaroid instant camera film pack is 12v just like your car battery. How long do you think you could turn the starter in your car off that film pack?


Also, rescue ROVs are a LOT more sophisticated than a cheap R/C tank for a reason. We're not talking being able to traverse the sandy spot at the end of the driveway or the flower bed, we're talking being able to negotiate a high-contamination-potential environment (dust, water, live electrical wires, mud), traversing large (6"+) chunks of rubble, being able to sustain getting hit by falling rubble (and maybe having to continue moving with a couple pounds of rock on the ROV), and operating inside RF-poor environments. Once you start factoring in the potential obstacles you face, inexpensive doesn't stay that way.

Sorry to be a wet blanket, because it's a nice idea, but for the cost of just a few hardened toys, you could probably get someone's pet dog trained as a half-decent rescue animal and get the same (if not better) effect.

 

[Hamilton Felix]

You could still make a helluva toy

Cordless drill motors, maybe one for each track, could make a heck of a toy tank. You'd need an RC enthusiast or other "controls geek" to help work out remote control and reversing. Hey, where do those people come from that you see on Battlebots and Robot Wars?