How to Make a Simple 3D Printable Wifi Control Arduino Based Car With Esp8266

Welcome to this project tutorial on how to build a WiFi-controlled mini tank. This project is completely 3D printable from scratch and requires no custom PCB.

You will need the following components for this build:

1. Wemos D1 mini clone
2. OLED Display
3. 2 piece addressable LED
4. TP4056 Charger board
5. Li-po battery
6. Slide Switch
7. Micro Servo (a broken one is perfectly fine!)
8. Servo horn set
9. Pin headers
10. Heat Shrink tube
11. Proto board
12. M2 screws
13. DRV8833 H-bridge motor driver (ideal for a 1S battery setup)
14. 3D printed parts
15. Hookup wire

Instead of buying an expensive continuous rotation servo or dealing with voltage boosters, we are going to repurpose a broken micro servo.

1. Standard servos operate between 4.8 and 6.0 volts, which would require an inefficient step-up module for this system.
2. To avoid this, extract the broken circuit board from your servo and keep only the geared reduction parts.
3. Solder two wires directly to the motor's pins.
4. Solder a female pin header to the other end of the wires; this makes it much easier to plug into the project later.
5. The 3.7V from our Li-Po battery is more than enough to drive this modified motor directly.

First, download the project source files from the provided GitHub repository. Link in here

Extract the downloaded file; you will find two folders: one for LED control and one for the main code.

Download and install the latest version of the Arduino IDE (version 2.3.8 was used for this project).

Install ESP8266 Core: Open Preferences in the Arduino IDE, paste the ESP8266 tools link into the Additional Boards Manager URLs field, and click OK. Then, open the Boards Manager, search for "esp8266," and install it.

Install Libraries: Navigate to the Library Manager and install the following three external libraries: Adafruit GFX, Adafruit SSD1306, and Adafruit NeoPixel.

Open the main code folder in the Arduino IDE.

Go to the Tools menu and select "Wemos D1 mini clone" as your board.

Select the correct COM port for your device.

Leave all other settings at their defaults and click the Upload button.

Once the upload finishes, verify that everything is functioning correctly before moving on to final assembly.

Download the required 3D models from the Cults3D page. For reference, these parts were prototyped for high speed and quality on a custom-built DSN D1 3D printer.

Prepare your breadboard assembly and proceed to solder the final components onto the proto board.

Assemble the 3D printed chassis and attach the tracks/wheels.

Important: Do not overtighten the wheels; they must be able to turn freely for the tank to drive properly.

Turn on the switch and enjoy your new WiFi-controlled mini tank!