One of the first rules of Hacky Racers reads: “It’s expected that all entries will have a theme and some decoration, to help win the crowd vote.” We decided to go with one of the original Whacky Races teams: The Ant Hill Mob. Their car was called the “Bullet Proof Bomb” and looked like this….
We did our usual approach: I press-ganged my eldest son into modelling the car in CAD, then I chopped his design until I could get it to fit onto the existing chassis. As usual, we are working on half of the design; we will mirror to create the other half at the end of the design process. This is what we have so far…
Most parts will be 3D printed, although the sides have been laser cut from ply. The parts are larger than we usually print: just the bonnet is a 49 hour print. The bumper is a plastic tube; I think it was a firework launch tube. It’s been in the I’m-sure-this-will-come-in-handy box for many years.
The box inside the car is a camera mount. It’s designed to hold a Luxonis OAK-D camera, but I think will be used with a regular Raspberry Pi camera for now. The box has a clear acrylic screen to protect the camera, although this doesn’t show on the image. The organisers have pointed out that the race will take place, even if it is raining.
The cup in the roof of the car is to hold the Hacky Racers transponder.
As I write this, the 3D printer is running. And there’s software to get working.
Team PiDrogen 