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Having no LEGO Technic parts at all, I'm looking for the cheapest and simplest way to build a LEGO Technic car which can be combined with two Lego Technic motors to drive forward and backward (phase 1) and to steer to left and right (phase 2).

I see two possibilities:

  • Buy a complete LEGO Technic product (which one can you recommend?)
  • Get all the parts needed online (which parts do I need?)

I would like to combine the two motors with my Raspberry Pi.

1 Answer 1

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I think your best bet is to start with 42048 Technic Race Kart and a 8293 Power Functions bundle. This gives you just one motor, but that's enough for propulsion (going back and forth).

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You would need to look into a motor driver board (for example the DRV8835) for the motor, and look at schematics for a power functions cable mod to be able to drive the motor directly from the RPi - see this question for several suggestions on how to do this..

enter image description here

For steering you can look into a 88004 Servo Motor, or use a normal Medium motor with extremely fine control or a good set of gears to be able to make small steering adjustments.

enter image description here

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  • Amazing as usual, Phil!
    – user6907
    Aug 11, 2016 at 3:25
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    Note that you will end up with a big set of power functions parts on a small chassis - the go cart is big enough to carry them, but not by a large margin. The two photos are not at the same scale.
    – Móż
    Aug 11, 2016 at 4:19
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    Thank you. Very helpful. Having read some tutorials I'm now thinking about getting the "BrickPi", which will help connecting Lego motors and sensors to my RaspberryPi. In this case I wouldn't need the motor driver board. This is not the cheapest solution but it looks very simple to me.
    – mosquito87
    Aug 11, 2016 at 7:17
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    Yes, the BrickPi is a great solution as well. And to @Móż point: yes, it becomes quite cramped but if you remove the seat and the fake engine, there is enough space to place the motor and the battery box. I have done this in my classroom program.
    – Phil B.
    Aug 11, 2016 at 11:56
  • Oh, you might want to add the BrickPi details as an answer to this post as well - could be helpful. @mosquito87
    – Phil B.
    Aug 11, 2016 at 12:40

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