PocketLabs G-Force car, blinding me with science
My kid was telling me that they're learning about forces in science class and mentioned they did the derby-style stuff with toy cars - you know, velocity, acceleration, etc. - but she said the car was hooked up to their laptops...say what?
Found out it was a PocketLab G-Force car, which is bigger than a Hot Wheels but still fits on standard track. It has some sort of guts inside of it that transmits data via bluetooth to the laptop for charts and stuff. Naturally, I thought, "can I take the guts out of it and put it into a Hot Wheels?" ...thinking it could be interesting/helpful to have such data about our modified cars.
A quick lookup tells me that a) it's a pretty cool kit, and b) it's very expensive at $176...soooo it's not something I'll be getting to play with anytime soon.
Nonetheless, thought I'd bring it up in case someone sees one in the wild somehow, or is a teacher that can get them cheaper(?), or just has extra coin to drop on something they'll only break apart.
Of course, now I'm also wondering if I can buy all the component parts and make my own G-Force car, using some sort of tiny PiZero or ESP32 or something. I mean, the G-Force car just has the same parts in it, I bet. Maybe down the road...
Discussion
I'm sure there is someone in the field of micro-engineering that would be able to weigh in on this topic...
I admit I have no real idea what I'm looking for, lol - but Adafruit has it's usual catalog of tiny gyros, sensors, and whatevers.
I'm gonna guess they have a educators discount maybe $140 or something like that. But that would still be fairly expensive because in a large high school like the one I worked at with an average of 2500 students, would need a minimum of 32 of those to handle multiple classrooms. As far as something like that being used in a lab situation to collect data.
although if it does have an app, it could be used as a classroom demonstration vehicle with data display for the class via projector or large screen display.
as to actually making something like this. It's quite feasible, all the tools are out there, including fab houses and build houses. I did my last electrical design work for a amplifier I was interested in in 2022. I was logging into a PCB (printed circuit board) design service located in Beijing. And so through the web browser, I was designing a PCB when I was done I had it fab and mailed to me. It was all very affordable. And I believe now it's not uncommon for these services to be end to end, meaning you can design the printed circuit board and then they've got the parts and they will actually build a board for you and mail you a completed board. But as noted, the tricky part would be the app programming, but also the programming of the controller.
- Those instant-PCB places work pretty well, based on what I've heard from friends. Hardware is not my expertise; the programming is where I would be able to make things hum. — redlinederby
This could be a fun tool for honing in your road style track. Find the optimum speed and velocity to take banked corners, and the correct down slope on the straights to keep that momentum. Being a bit of a science geek, this peeks my interest greatly. Only thing holding me back is price point. It would be hard to justify that to the wife, lol.
here is a link to the spec page... there is a software package but I cannot create a profile to download it...
While shopping for parts I came to the realization that you won't be collecting any meaningful data because the components take up the space where you would put weight in the car. The whole concept is cool as hell but you would not be able to do this in a car that was fully set up for racing ( weight, CG etc). If you had your car fully set up for racing, there would be no room to install the electronics.
Example: 60gram car modified for an open track road course. But the time you add the weight and get it where you want it for front/rear ratio, you would not have room left for the electronics.
But this would still be fun to do just for the sake of it on a stock hot wheels
-Z-
- Yeah, I figured that too but I also assumed there's math to account for that, lol - I dunno. Or maybe it's not for adding into your own car but used as a way to test weights, etc in comparison to your cars. But yeah, eitherway neat think about :) — redlinederby
- I only think of it as a tool for research and development, and - as such you wouldn't really even need a body. One could have the setup ride on top of the weights and collect data on different wheel sets and whatnot. — Justin_Thyme
[Richard Gear & Aaron Take look on, longingly]
Yeah buddy! If there's capability for accelerometers to measure both linear and lateral forces AND transmit the telemetry. . .
TEMPTING, that's how I'd describe that in a word
Great find, thanks for the share, Boss