Building the Batmobile

A few years ago, I was looking for things to do with my son. I am still looking but one of the interesting things I found was a kickstarter project from a company called Circuitmess ( https://twitter.com/circuitmess ). Both of us are big fans of the caped crusader and love messing around with toys.

This May, the kickstarter delivered on it's promise and the batmobile and batcontroller winged it's way to us.

The batmobile was a self build, but once complete, it boasts being able to track a ball, read cards and drive by remote control. All this and still suitable for 7+. The inventors pack was rated from 11+ as that can involve soldering.

Going my typical over the top, I bought the inventors pack, which included extra parts for the controller as well as a toolkit.

During the half term break for the summer, I sat down with my boy to build the batmobile. My first impressions of the batmobile were that it appeared to be very well made.

Our first port of call was to assemble the Bat Controller. This was a simple affair to attach the screen, although a bit fiddly. Adding the battery and attaching the acrylic casing. The battery was a bit of a tight squeeze, but it all went together in the end. Switching the device on revealed that I hadn't attached the screen properly. I could see the lights switch on, but no display. If nothing else, test as you go on people.

Lastly, we put the rubber bumper on the controller and it was all starting to look the part. Next stage was to build the Batmobile itself.

Building the actual Batmobile was quite straight forward. The rear light unit ("the fire") was attached and connected to the PCB. Once completed, the batmobile's logo on the front was added and the camera was stuck down to the logo.

To complete the build, the motors and gears were screwed to the shell and then attached to the PCB. All the connectors were push down type and a little bit difficult for the boy. It's a good idea to check all these connectors are pushed down fully before placing the clear acrylic protector over the top to protect the electronics.

Once full assembled, the only thing left to do was to charge the batmobile and controller. There was charge in the batteries, however this didn't last that long. Charging the devices was via USB C cables, and I left them for a good couple of hours.

All that remained to do was put it through it's paces and look in to programming the devices.

To be continued ...