Components
This board should be assembled for you. Information will be down loaded into it, and it will control the car.
A rotation counter should be made if a transmission is going to be used. The counter will be used to tell the car when to switch gears. The rotation meter should be calibrated so that at a certain rpm, the control board will signal a gear change. The rotation counter should be made from a phototransitor and a Red LED. (See Figure below.) Place the half solid gear that you are supplied with between the phototransitor and the Red LED. This gear should be attached to a shaft that has another gear on it that is attached to the transmission. This set up will enable the rotation counter to rotate with respect to the speed of the transmission. The rotation counter should be connected to the lower two digital ports.
The motor should be sandwiched between to two flat 2 X 4 lEGOs for modular convenience. (See figure below.) You will recognize these pieces by the missing nubs on the bottom piece and the flat bottom on the top piece. Next, strip a two stranded ribbon cable wire and solder one wire to each of the two
metal lead/pads on the end of the motor. (See the section on soldering.) The order of these wires does not matter. Hot glue and heat shrink may be used for stress relief and protection.
Now, cut a three prong piece off of the male socket headers. Remove the center prong by pressing the soldering iron against the end of it. Again strip the end of the wires and solder to the short end of the prongs. Don't forget the glue and heat shrink.
Connect the batteries in series. Be sure to connect positive to negative terminals. (See figure below.)
The servo is a small motor that allows some control over the position of the axle. This will already be assembled for you.
The motor driver should be wired like the picture below. The two prongs on the bottom of the moto driver should be put through a board with holes in it. These prongs are attached to the transitor. This transistor is used to amplify the power source. All of the wireing should be done on the back on the board. Solder a copper wire to each of the prongs. Wrap another copper wire around one of the screws. (It doesn't matter which one.) See the figure below for the other end of each connection.
