Build car chassis from scratch II

There was an earlier post about Building motorcar from scratch but it uses big wheels not included in the LEGO WeDo Basic set and the LEGO Resource set. Further, because of the choice of gears plus the big wheels, the car runs too fast. Even though I later changed the gearing to make car move slower, a new design is in order.

So I guided one of my grandson to build a chasis so that he can command "Jalan" (Malay word for move) to make the car move by making motor . And by taking apart the car and taking photos along the way, the photos in sequence can act as building instruction:

Step 1: base

Step 2: Add motor and 9 tooth spur gearte

Step 3: Add frame, crown gear and axles

Step 4: Add wheels

With this small spur gear turns bigger crown gear which then rotates small wheels, the car runs sufficiently slow and is preferably for making that sound controld motorcar.

Gearing down WeDo motor controlled car to run slower

This previous Lego car driven by gears and motor (see photo) perhaps is a bit too fast and would quickly move till the maximum allowed by the length permitted by the wire.

The first model we have the 24 teeth crown gear with the 24 teeth spur gear. To slow down the speed, we need to gear down connecting the 8 teeth spur gear to the 24 teeth spur gear. Here is a photo of the geared down car model. You can see how to remake the car model by looking at this photo. See details of the down gearing here.

To make the car runs even slower, we do a further down gearing. Look at this photo to see how. For a closer look at the downgearing look at the details here.

Photos

first car model

Step 5: Add bricks to raise level

Making Lego WeDo computer controlled motorcar from scratch

Lego sets generally come with complete easy to follow building instructions. However, it is much better if children can build new models from scratch without plans. Making a Lego Education Wedo car controlled from the computer with Lego WeDo software or MIT Scratch software is quite easy and hopefully the photos below showing how such a car can be built step by step to build a basic car base which can be added upon to customize can encourage them to create new models from scratch on their own:

Update: for a better option for building car chassis, refer to Building a car chassis from scratch part ii

Step 1: Base plate: Base plate to mount WeDo motor

Step 1: Base plate to mount WeDo motor

Step 2: Fix WeDo motor on base plate with drive shaft and crown gear