About Me
Howdy folks,
Back in the Stone Age when I was a kid we did have smart kid toys but they were mostly limited to microscopes, telescopes, chemistry sets (yep, with real chemicals!), Radio Shack electronic lab kit, Heathkits (remember those, they’re making a comeback), Legos, and Erector sets. The Radio Shack electronic labs and Heathkits weren’t very well documented so, I created this blog to document Snap Circuits which are light years ahead of those old sets regarding documentation. I hope to create an interesting introduction to electronics using Elenco Electronics Snap Circuits parts and some analogies (yep, the water pipe, or electronic–hydraulic analogy) that I am able to scrounge up form the Web. I go by the Pen Name “Snaps” Provolone for the purpose of this blog (if you are a Stalone fan, I’m sure you’ll get the reference).
Thanks Snaps for the great write-up on your Trakr. I got to it via the Trakr website while looking for information about possible use of the vehicle to inspect ventilation duct work, crawl spaces and a surfaced part of my attic. If metal duct work blocks reception I wondered if hooking a wire to the vehicle that can be connected to the remote’s antenna would carry a signal to it. That would also provide a tether for retrieval assistance. I bookmarked your write-up for reference, but still have to decide if buying a Trakr is worthwhile. You said somewhere that you were disappointed, I think, in the control range and Trakr’s power to climb obstacles. Do you think the Trakr is the best platform to convert to a more robust vehicle since it already has the control hardware, plus hackable software, plus video/IR/motion/snapshot capabilities? Any other ratio controlled vehicle with those options must cost well over a thousand bucks. Jim in Smithfield, VA
“If metal duct work blocks reception I wondered if hooking a wire to the vehicle that can be connected to the remote’s antenna would carry a signal to it. That would also provide a tether for retrieval assistance.”
Radio Frequency (RF) is usually line of sight so, I don’t know what would happen to the signal once the Trakr turned a corner–metal ductwork would act as a Faraday cage I would guess and probably block the signal. I’m not sure if connecting a wire to the remote’s antenna would work either. Anyway, you can post this question on the Trakr Forums. Codename cpt_hans knows vastly more about electronics and RF than I do.