As the title states, I am starting a remote control RC car project. I will be doing schematic and PCB for everything: the controller itself and the motor control board for the car. Starting with a simple toy RC car with brushed motors will allow me to simplify control, using a single L298 board for the two motors.

One is the traction motor and the other the direction motor. As for the wireless part I will be using two ESP32 and the ESP-NOW protocol over “WiFi”. By using some clever tricks I will be able to use the DFRobot Beetle ESP32-C3 both in the controller and the vehicle.

The remote control will probably have the following features:

• One Analog joystick
• Six push buttons
• i2c OLED display
• LiPo battery with voltage reading and charging circuit (TP4056)
• One LED for status

Regarding the RC control board, it will probably features the following:

• Six digital outputs for L298 double bridge control
• Two spare outputs (for LED lighting, etc)
• One analog input for battery voltage readings
• One status LED

Since the L298 will use six GPIO alone, when and if I decide to use the controller and power board for another type of vehicle (say a drone), I will have it to use at my will.

PCB and schematics

I am just starting to draw and layout the controller board, still not sure wether to use a Beetle ESP32-C3 or a DevKit-C1 (since it is more readly available). I had decided previously to use a TP4056 for controller battery charging, but have changed my mind since. This is because the Beetle ESP32-C3 has built-in battery charging control, simplifying this part of the design.

Enough for now

I am still in early development stage, not having decided everything necessary. Will do in the next few days and keep you updated. See you next time.