5 hp Brushless Barbie Jeep

100% Complete

Spring 2018

• Dual Brushless Motors rated for 5 hp

• 15 mph Top Speed

• Custom designed and programmed Arduino drive controller

  • Fully variable, electronic throttle and braking

  • Custom throttle mapping to reduce startup torque (way too much torque)

  • Sensor controlled active cooling and thermal shutoff protection

  • Digital Battery and Speedometer OLED display

• Marine Bluetooth and FM Radio Install

• Hi-Fi under hood speaker install with enclosure volume optimized to speakers

• High grip tires through novel use of inner tubes stretched over plastic wheels.

• High Strength Steel Wheelie bar to prevent flipping on aggressive acceleration (very much required with enhanced grip wheels)

• Electronics fabrication (soldering, custom wiring harnesses, etc)

• Programming (The Arduino is doing a lot and needs to be coded efficiently as it is controlling throttle and brake and lag in braking or throttle is problematic).

• Traditional fabrication (cutting, drilling, etc)

• If I have time, I'd like to transition the drivetrain from the high gear reduction noisy power wheels gearbox (had to heavily modify to prevent gear stripping) to an electric skateboard style drivetrain with outrunner style brushless motors (low RPM) with simple belt and pulley transmission. This will greatly reduce noise and will further increase reliability as well as increase overall efficiency.

• Another idea I had, is to convert this into a tank style vehicle for my son. Would be very cool and a great opportunity to create some cool control systems for steering. Downside is the time required to 3d print all the parts for the track setup, and will require me to finish my larger format 3d printer mods :)

Overall, I feel like this build exceeded my expectations . It had a clean look with a lot of wow factor with the stereo and the huge speed and power gains. Nothing says "my dad loves me" like popping a wheelie in your modified barbie jeep while blasting kidz bop in the park. Additionally, I was really pleased with the overall reliability of the controller and drivetrain.

While the drivetrain did perform well, we are way over powering the gearbox and the additional grip of the rubber wheels is really brutal on the plastic gears, so they do eventually strip. I think moving towards a E Skate style drivetrain will result in significant reliability gains and is something I should do, as my son is about ready to inherit.

This was one of my favorite projects. While I was living vicariously through my 6 year old daughter, it was a fun design challenge and build that the whole family ended up really enjoying. This was also my first project that really used an Arduino, and so I felt like I learned a lot and it dramatically expanded my future project opportunities