kalasend

Hi,

Newbie here. Just got myself an inexpensive nitro kit from HPI and got everything together and up and running.
I must say that the building and tuning experience was terrific...never feel so great about cars before.

But when it comes to "playing"(note that I do not use the word "driving" the car, sorry if someone find this offensive, it simply sucks! I don't understand how the RC car world can live with this. Come on! You tune and setup the car like a professional racecar engineer and freaking "play" it like a 3-year-old playing rubber duck?

Ok, enough complaining. I just wonder is there someone out there making onboard cameras and steering wheel controls for RC cars? I know there will never be 100% driving experience but I think right now we are at 30% when in fact technologies already allow us to go to above 50% at least....are there products that fill this gap?

ericheller

well if you want to be able to sit in the car and drive it then you should have bought a real car. the whole idea of having a rc car is controling it from somewhere else. but there is a place that makes cameras for them, dont know the site name, but they look crappy.

kalasend

Well, I don't know about you but I started off being a car guy and then started playing RC car. Therefore I prefer things as close to real driving as possible. So I may not be looking at things like a typical RC car enthusiast does?

The problem, I guess, really goes back to what you really enjoy about this hobby. I know I like to "drive". And I guess you simply like being "remote"? But I don't find these two conflicting with each other: why can't I drive remotely?

Besides, with today's technology I think there's nothing fascinating about being "remote" any more. So it's just natural for people to seek something on the "reality" or "simulation" path. If this is not true, why the nitro engine? why the tire compounds? why 4WD? why differentials? etc. etc.?

"Why not a real car"? For me it's simple, money. Anyways, I appreciate anyone who can point me to the product he mentioned. Thanks.

rodrigo1508

Practice, thats all I can say.
You cant expect to be great driving this cars only because you know how to drive a real car, its a totally diferent experience and even if there were steering wheels for them I think you would still have the same problem, you would have to practice.
May be a steering wheel would be cool but its not practical.
I dont like the idea of Having an onboard camara, It would be the same if you go and play a videogame

ericheller

to me driving a real car and driving a rc car are to totally different things. if i want to simulate driving in a faster car i go play gran truismo. it would be cool to control a rc car with cameras and stuff though, except thats one more expence if you wreck.

Vanquish24

How can driving rcs be boring to you? I mean the building, repairing, and maintainace is awsome but the best part is too see how well you did and how well you made it perform. Its just like a real car if people care about it and care about performance they will buy performance parts and what not to make it faster, stronger, and a lot more powerful. I think its great bashing and racing rcs, and there is always competition that you can look up to. Its all about having fun!

kalasend

Let me tell you I am a super GT fan. I play it everyday. And really, what I am looking for is something from RC car and something from GT.
From RC car: a physically existing, mechanically complete car; and being able to tune it
From GT: being able to drive and see in a much more realistic manner

kalasend

You are right in that RC cars are totally different from real cars. But I want to ask this: what if from the beginning RC cars are controlled in the cam-and-steering-wheel way? Would that have turned you away from the hobby in the first place? I believe not. I think you don't like this idea just because the way it currently is already stays deep down to your mind such that you think anything different is not your cup of coffee.

kalasend

Well yeah, having fun is exactly what I want.
But don't you think being able to see from the cockpit and driving with steering wheel makes it more fun?
I am not saying RC cars are boring, I am just saying the current method(or mainstream method) of controlling them can be improved.

Vanquish24

Now what do you mean by controlling from the cockpit? Your saying to put a camera there so you can see everything from the rc on the ground? If you want to do that go drive your real car, you will have total control of the steering and you will be inside seeing everything outside. RC stands for remote control and i'd like it to stay that way. Its amazing how you can make these things go just as fast as real cars and being able to see them zoom past you.
I understand what you are trying to say but i feel like i already am in total control of my rc. No need of improvement there.

Mopzilla

I've tried running an R/C car with an onboard camera. Unless you spend more than $20 bux for the camera and $25 for the shipping from China (those $45 camera deals you find on ebay). The camera quality is pretty crappy, the link isn't too good, there's no sound, and the view is pretty shaky coming from a 1/10th scale car. However, it would probably be a lot funner if you got a wide angle high-quality micro camera coupled with a powerful transmitter and special antenna, maybe even put a rearview and a venom speedometer in the view to make the best of it. The good camera system would cost a lot more money, and you'd still have a shaking camera unless you put soft springs on the shocks and foam mounted it.

Though, I have to say it was fun driving a small car around my house while sitting on my bed looking at the 3 inch LCD screen of the digital camera. [8D]

I have to tell you though, in a race it's a lot easier to control a car standing somewhere than looking at a screen. Because unless you install more cameras on it or some mirrors (that are shaking), you won't be really sure where the other cars are.

ZipZap

Sounds like a fun idea.

You already control the steering, the difference is perspective. Just say, for example, you had 30 fps video into a helmet display. This would be very expensive, to say the least. I think, however, that although fun to play with, it would be a real pain to perfect. Somehow, you would need to make the scale appear much larger. This is because at scale, my 1/10th sedan is travelling over 400 mph!! It's almost imperative that the driver have an "overview".

I'm a big fan of Gran Tourismo 3. The cars are much easier to drive when you place the camera above and behind the car. Using the in-car views are exciting, but not easy. Now transfer this to the quickness of 1/10th scale. You can basically side-step your car behind another in about 0.2 seconds. Can you imagine how hard this would be to control if your perspective were at ground level? Your brain is not ready to compute the quickness of the scale.

It would be fun to try though......

rodrigo1508

May be, because of money and too much problems ( there are a lot of them even with out the camera) may be I would just ditch the camera, about the steering wheel I dont totally dislike the idea but you have more sensibility and control moving your fingers than moving your arms, and as I said its not practical.

I dont like it not because the camera might steal my soul, I dont like it because of valid reasons (at least to me) like money issues, weight , design, etc,etc.


To answer this I quote you again "think you don't like this idea just because the way it currently is already stays deep down to your mind such that you think anything different is not your cup of coffee"

rodrigo1508

I also think it would be fun to try but with something like a mini-t inside the house or something like that

troywg

I have been wanting to do something like this for awhile now. I think it's a great idea but the problem I've been seeing is that the range for the wireless camera's is not good at all. You can only get about 50ft before the reception is so bad that the transmission would be broke up from what i've been looking into.
If someone has found someway to do this please let me know.

frailcow

I don't know if the comparison can be fairly made, but on GT3 the in car views give you way better control, better view for cornering, more sense of speed etc. Perhaps with an in car cam for racing you could take the lines better to go faster.

popuptoaster

there is a guy who builds 1/4 scale RC cars that are driven from pods with proper car controls, they have cameras mounted in the cars, think the whole set up was about £5000 a car.
Ive seen plenty of posts from guys who put cams on their RC's and driven em round the house, but none of em were what id call fast.

the other thing to bare in mind is that at 30 mph your rc is going 44 feet per second, so with a 30fps cam its gonna do 1 1/2 feet per frame, there is quite a lot of room for a crash to happen, let alone if you start driving em at 60 mph.

Gabrill

Popuptoaster is right. Not only do you have a visual frame rate that signifacantly slower than your reaction and control speeds, you also have to deal with a lack of peripheral vision and image distortion, interference, and quality. Then there's the issue of having the extra weight/power drain on the model. Bulky viewing/controling equipment will limit your portability. You might make it work in an amusement park or a mall, where the people come to you and expect to pay for fun, but no where else on a large scale.

Vanquish24

All in all sounds like a bad idea to most of you right? Well than lets get back to controling them the old fashion way! LoL

kalasend

That's exactly what I am going for!
Think of the RC car racing today... the cars are fast but the track is small because no one can control the car 100 feet away, let alone being able to take a good line for cornering.

But then I know someone's gonna say "RC car is not all about racing...if you want to race well drive a real car". I don't know about others but I think saying this is really meaningless. I feel like you are telling me this: Well, you play RC cars this way and it has to stay this way. If you want to play it differently we don't welcome you.

Gabrill

Don't get me wrong. If you can overcome problems generally recognized on your new control system, then you MAY end up a millionair. Todays tinkers that buck the system are tomorrows visionairies. But only if it actually works.

One BIG advantage of driving from the RC stand is being able to see WAY up the track and around corners. You wouldn't have that advantage from a cockpit view.