Control a RC Car via a PC and Arduino

Almost any inexpensive remote-control car or toy has a simple remote control that consists of normal buttons. Taking advantage of this, the remotes can be opened and connected to digital outputs of an Arduino board to allow control via the sketch. The people at the JBprojects blog have taken this one step further by writing Java software to create a control panel which can then forward commands to the car via the Arduino and the USB-serial connection on the board. Here is a quick demonstration of it in action:

 

The hardware required to complete this project is incredibly easy, and would make a fun afternoon tooling around. So to get started, click here for the detailed instructions, Java code and Arduino sketch. And we’re on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.