T119RC-Bert

T-119RC "Bert"

Participants
Skills	3d printing, metal working, electronics, design, cad
Status	Active
Niche	Mechanics
Purpose	Electronics, fun, world domination
Tool	No
Location	r3boots home
Cost	hahaha, next question!
Tool category	Fabrication

T-119RC "Bert"

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What

A remotely controlled tank chassis.

Why

My Grandfather was a tank commander, and ever since I was a kid he took me along to base to play around his tanks. Since then I have been impressed with large vehicles. Also, as a kid, I did a lot of modelling. So lots of years later, while I was building a scale model of the T90, I got the inspiration to build my own remotely controlled tank chassis because why not? :)

How

This project started with an RC suspension component. Using that, I gradually designed a tank around it. The tank itself has been built using a mix of techniques. The chassis is made using aluminium profiles bought from the Gamma and bound together using rivets. All moving parts have been made using 3d printing. The motors come from spare parts from Henglong RC tanks and the control was originally part of an RC helicopter/aircraft. Arduino-based electronics have been added to translate the aircraft controls to tank controls

Story

I have designed this using an iterative design process and a lot was done using learn-as-you-go. After working on this project for approx 4 months, I broke it within 45 minutes. This was caused by not caring about tolerances as I should :) This caused most of the drivetrain to be redesigned in order to have all axles straight. Once this was fixed, further testing took place. Not all individual tracklinks were printed as well as I would imagine, and this caused the tracks to break in certain situations. This was also fixed by replacing the faulty tracks.

Design files and Code

All parts have been designed using solidworks. The original design files can be found here. The code that lives on the controller, together with some schematics can be found in this file. No digital design has been made wrt the schematics.