Photography by Tom Zimmerman
W HEN I GO TO SCHOOLS, I TELL THE students about the Mars Rover, a remote control robot with cameras that roams around Mars. Then I tell them they’re going to drive one. Well, not exactly. I bring out a remote control truck with a wireless video camera on top and magnets on the front bumper. Then I spread tin cans on the floor and have students remote-control the truck to collect them – just like the Mars Rover, except with cans instead of rocks. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. They can only see what the camera sees, on a TV screen, and they soon find out that driving is a lot harder when their field of vision is as narrow as a video camera’s.
You, too, can build the Mars Rover. Here’s how to do it in a few hours for under $150. The main
components are a remote control (R/C) truck and an X10 wireless camera and receiver. The only tools you need are a hand drill, diagonal cutters, a saw, and scissors. And surprisingly, the hardest part of the project is arranging the magnets.
Before you start drilling, make sure the wireless camera works. Load 4 AA batteries into the camera's battery pack, and plug the wireless receiver into a TV using the RCV audio/video cable. (If the TV lacks separate video and audio jacks, plug its RF output into the antenna input.) Use the small slide switches on both the camera and wireless receiver to set each device to channel 1, and try other channels if you don’t get a clear signal. If you are near a wireless
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