Photography by Tom Zimmerman
W HEN I GO TO SCHOOLS, I TELL THE components are a remote control (R/C) truck and students about the Mars Rover, a remote an X10 wireless camera and receiver. The only tools control robot with cameras that roams you need are a hand drill, diagonal cutters, a saw, around Mars. Then I tell them they’re going to drive and scissors. And surprisingly, the hardest part of one. Well, not exactly. I bring out a remote control the project is arranging the magnets. truck with a wireless video camera on top and magnets on the front bumper. Then I spread tin TEST THE CAMERA cans on the floor and have students remote-control Before you start drilling, make sure the wireless the truck to collect them – just like the Mars Rover, camera works. Load 4 AA batteries into the camera's except with cans instead of rocks. Sounds easy, battery pack, and plug the wireless receiver into a right? Wrong. They can only see what the camera TV using the RCV audio/video cable. (If the TV lacks sees, on a TV screen, and they soon find out that separate video and audio jacks, plug its RF output driving is a lot harder when their field of vision is as into the antenna input.) Use the small slide switches narrow as a video camera’s. on both the camera and wireless receiver to set each
You, too, can build the Mars Rover. Here’s how device to channel 1, and try other channels if you to do it in a few hours for under $150. The main don’t get a clear signal. If you are near a wireless
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