Car Hack: Remotely Drive a Car with an iPhone
Should driving a car with an iPhone deserve a ticket? Nah, it should be rewarded. It might look dangerous but this iPhone hack is just another example of what can be done with an iPhone and uncommon ingenuity. The 10 Outstanding DIY iPhone Hacks we covered a while back show more superb ways modders have exploited the iPhone.
Follow along the Waterloo Engineering team as they show us a video how-to on how to remote control a full sized automobile. Controlling the car with an iPhone is not just a case of an iPhone app and Wi-Fi. It’s also a lot of ‘behind the wheels’ engineering as the gas, the brake and the steering are rigged up with three separate controlling motors. The motors are interfaced to a Wi-Fi enabled Compact RIO controller.
The car can be remotely steered using a laptop with LabView software as the brains. A custom app lets you control the pedal and gas with touch sliders on the phone. The steering is taken care of by the iPhone’s accelerometer.
Three instructional videos take us through the project. The first gives an overview, the second focuses on the components and the third is all about the code for the iPhone app. All three end with glimpses of car-surfing with a driverless car. You can also check out the text description on how they did it.
Get yourself a salvaged car, some scavenged motor parts and the other hardware mentioned. Try this one out far away from the cops.
iPhone hacks never cease to amaze. Check out a few more:
March 28th, 2010
The steering coloumb hack was good, but if it was me, at least for the accellerator, i’d use
a pulley (connected to the throttle cable) with a servo and return spring so when you wanna decellerate you don’t have to wait for the motor to wind back up. I think that this method would be a bit better. And as far as the braking is concerned, since the brakes operate from a pump and not a cable, it might be harder to find an easier way for that.
March 28th, 2010
sorry, when i said “easier” i meant more precise and “clean.” Like, if a company were asking me to design such a system. Anyways, not knockin your style dudes, cause it definitely kicks ass to drive a car like that however you pull it off.