Power Wheel Hacks

Posted on by RubenFixit

We inherited this power wheels ATV from a dear family that moved out of state. It needed some “fixing” before we could have some fun with it. These are the things I’ve done to it since we got it.

New Battery

The original battery had long since died, and my 18V cordless drill batteries were the only ones I had that were remotely powerful enough to make it move. Sure the voltage is a bit higher than the 12V ATV is designed to run on, but now it goes faster! Also, I’ve been running it on 18V for 3 years now and it still runs great. As you can see in the photo’s I used a standard RC battery plug. Then created battery adapter to spade wire terminals. I used bits of wood to keep the right spacing of the spade wire terminals for battery connection and removal.

Bike trailer hitch

The problem with having siblings is you need to share. So I thought they could all have fun together if they could pull each other around. So I came up with this trailer hitch. Get a 3/4 in. PVC 45 degree elbow, and drill a hole clear through one side for the trailer cotter pin to go through. Then place a piece of scrap 2×4 on the inside of the battery bay, and put at least 3 screws through the PVC elbow through the body into the 2×4.

Painted it Metallic Blue

RGB Undercarriage Lights

Simply added some 12V RGB LED strips to the undercarriage of the power wheels, and added the controller that came with it. The LEDs were able to operate just fine at 18V using the LED IR controller that they came with. It also adds visibility at night.

Unfortunately the LED strips eventually fell off even after gluing them down.

Battery Level Indicator

New Treads

Now that the kids are getting bigger I noticed that the wheels tend so spin out longer, and that the ATV wont stop as quickly as it used to. This was especially apparent when they tried to pull a heavier wagon. So I found a hack online on how to take a bike tire (not inner-tube) and apply it to the hard plastic wheels to give it more traction.

Pull a Parade Float

Okay this one isn’t really a hack, but was made possible because of some of the hacks. And it is a neat thing I was able to do with my kids. We had a lot of fun, and they were able to help promote Mommy’s business (pebblebaysoaps.com). We also won 3rd place for best float!

Control RGB LEDs With the Wave of Your Hand

Posted on by RubenFixit

This was a fun project I worked on for TangibleTec. A LeapMotion demo for an up coming Elementary Schools STEM night.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with LEAP Motion, it is a hardware sensor device that supports hand and finger motions as input, analogous to a mouse, but requires no hand contact or touching.

You can read more about is and get instructions on how to build it on Instructable.com

LED RGB Stars

Posted on by RubenFixit

It is nearing Christmas time again.

Last year, I was in an apartment that was doing a Christmas Light Decoration Competition. The first three winner received a discount on the next months rent.

So I decided to order some RGB LED strips from banggood.com and make some really cool IR controllable stars.

The process was simple, if not a bit tedious…

First, I measured the length of the smallest section I could get from the LED strop. Then I made a pattern, on a regular sheet of paper, that would give me the angles and length for each point in the star.

Then, I traced the angles on a piece of cardboard, cut the star out, and placed the sections of LED strips, to make sure everything fit.

Here is a picture of the star, the template, the tools I used, and the LED strips in place.

Now all that is left is to solder all the LED segments together.
This was by far the most tedious part.

And here it is all lit up.

And, why only make one when I can make three!

So Here is our final apartment balcony.

Click to view on YouTube