In this project we want to develop custom controls for a Carrera slotcar. We accomplish this by mounting an ESP32 board onto the car to control the motor instead of the controllers that are connected to the track.
Further, we want to add a camera to the vehicle to see a live videofeed from the cockpit to enable first person driving.
After copying the HTML code from the index.html file into the constants.h file you need to replace all % characters with %% in order to escape them. Otherwise the web interface will not work.
You should also adapt the version metatag in the header to verify that the chip boots with the correct version (see OTA Issues).
192.168.4.1/ will open the frontend for controlling the vehicle.
192.168.4.1/OTA will enable OTA flashing of the board.
192.168.4.1/set_cred?ssid=<NewSSID>&pwd=<NewPassword> is used for changing the ESPs WiFi-Name and Password. IMPORTANT: The password needs to be at least 8 characters long.
192.168.4.1/cred will return the current WiFi SSID and password.
There are further endpoints for debugging such as /runtime or /nvs_reset.
<number> will set the speed to the provided number. This will be clamped by config->min and config->max.
L will enable the LED on the car. The duration is set in the config of the vehicle, however if you want to change this remember to change the animation-duration in the frontend as well.
B will boost the vehicle for a short amount of time.
S acts as an emergency stop and will set the speed to 0.
The car uses the Ghostcar frequency which allows it to change lanes by simply turning on the IR-Led with the corresponding frequency.
| Vehicle | Frequency |
|---|---|
| 1 | 15600 |
| 2 | 7810 |
| 3 | 5210 |
| 4 | 3910 |
| 5 | 3120 |
| 6 | 2600 |
| Ghostcar | 2230 |
| Pacecar | 1950 |
- The Slotcar sometimes boots an old version from before the OTA Update.
- The Car reboots during the OTA Update process (motor boosts forward) which then fails.
Problemsolving:
If OTA repeatably fails, use UART bridge for flashing. After that the OTA should hopefully work again. You should also keep a version in your webpage (see Web-Interface) to check that the correct code is running on the chip.
- While placing the car on the track the motor gets powered for a second, because its pin is HIGH by default. Make sure to hold the back wheels up while placing the car on the track.
Place the slotcar on the track. Be careful: Due to the hardware, the motor will accelerate for a second so make sure to raise the back of the car while placing it down.
Connect to the WiFi that was created by the slotcar. The WiFi should be named either Carrera-Car 1 or Carrera-Car 2 and the password should be CarreraMachtSpass.
Visit 192.168.4.1 in your webbrowser. You should see the Frontend with a large slider to control the speed and a blue button that is used for changing lanes.
You can now control your car with the slider to set the velocity of the car and change lanes by clicking the blue button.
You can also connect a Bluetooth or wired Gamecontroller to your device to control the vehicle. When connected, click a button on your controller and the parameterpanel should open on the frontend. There you can configure three different parameters regarding neutral mode (decrease of speed if no other input is given), breaking power and acceleration power. Here you can also configure settings for Joystick controls (like inverting the axis) and adapt the controls if you are using a left Joycon (without checking this, the left Joycon behaves different and not that smoothly).
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us: