About: I love arduino and electronics in general. I enjoy tinkering and various other geeky activities. I also like studying Japanese.

Hello everyone! As the title says, I built an electric go kart which is powered by arduino! Here's a quick video to make you certain that this is the next thing you're going to build.

NEW VIDEO! Made for the Boca Bearings Innovation contest - please vote for me when it starts in September!

(Old video for reference: http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=w8x2s9&s=8)

My background: I'm a 15 year old high school student from California. My hobbies include building stuff, reading, and studying Japanese.

I've also entered into the Epilog Challenge contest, please vote for me!

A quick disclaimer: I take no responsibility for any injuries to yourself or anyone else. Electricity is DANGEROUS. Chain drives are EVEN MORE DANGEROUS. They could easily cut a finger off or worse. Wear a helmet when attempting things like this.

With that out of the way :)

Overview:

The drive setup uses a Hobbywing Xerun 150A brushless electronic speed controller to control a Savox BSM5065 450Kv motor. Batteries are 3x zippy lithium polymer - 5 cells, 5000mah. The motor has two large fans I pulled out of an old computer for cooling, mounted right over the motor. The chain drive is a 1:10 overall ratio, using a 15 tooth on the motor chained to a 30 tooth on the jackshaft, and a 9 tooth from the jackshaft to a 45 tooth on the wheel. The tires are 10" diameter so at 20 volts the top speed is around 30 mph. The ESC is controlled via PWM from the arduino. A throttle potentiometer on the steering wheel controls this. Constant current is around 40-50A, and the batteries last around 30 minutes with an average speed of 10-15mph. It requires a small push to get started (really, the motor just has to be rotating) and accelerates extremely fast. (and if anyone's wondering why it says FTL on the left control box, it's short for Faster than Light, which is the name I gave it.)

This is not going to be a guide to building this, because it's far too complex and every step wasn't documented, but rather detailed information for anyone who wants to make something similar.

I'm going to assume the reader has a decent understanding of electronics, Arduino, and radio control power systems.