With PiCar and a Raspberry Pi(TM) you can control a radio-controlled car. The software offers you a mode to manually control the vehicle, but also an autonomous drive mode, the "NaviX" engine, which enables the car to drive even through an unknown area using an ultrasonic sensor. The "NaviX" engine is also able to bring back your vehicle to its starting position. The "LumiX" engine offers several features to provide visual feedback and the "MoviX" engine communicates with the motors of the RC-car. You can control your car using a command-line interface (CLI).
To operate correctly, we strongly recommend to connect your RasPi with a WiFi network using an additional USB-WiFi-plug. For autonomous drive you also need an ultrasonic sensor (tested: HC-SR04) which is installed at the front of the vehicle.
- Download the archive and unpack it.
- Install and wire the motors of your RC-car with the Ryanteck MCB and plug it on your RasPi.
- Connect lighting (if available) to pin 24 and GROUND.
- Move to the "picar"-directory and execute start.py as root.
- Type "selftest" to check the correct wiring of your motors and if needed change the wiring.
- Report every bug to me! picar.infoandbugs@gmail.com
- To enable the experimental features remove the '#' before the code parts marked as experimental. USAGE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
After starting the program, you can use the following commands:
- forwards - moves the car forwards
- backwards - moves the car backwards
- left /right forwards - makes your car turn left or right forwards
- left /right backwards - makes your car turn left or right backwards
- selftest - for checking the functionality of every motor
- distance - shows the current distance to the next object using the ultrasonic sensor
- stealth - the lighting is switched off
- light - the lighting is switched on
- auto - activating autonomous drive
- quit - quit the application
- help - show command overview
- update - starts update.sh
- turn over - the car turns by 180°
- come back - the car comes back to its starting point
- clear directions - clears the cache of NaviX Comeback
- network status - checks if PiCar is online
- Improved system messages
- Bug fixes
- Removed some annoying infinite loops
- Other bugfixes
- Migrated auto.py into start.py
- Enabled autonomous drive
- Added NaviX Comeback: PiCar now returns to you, when you want it to!
- Added NaviX Netstat: PiCar checks it's internet connection at startup
- Improved startup messages
- System messages now have the same format
- ...and many, many bugfixes!
- Added Lumix engine with awesome new features
- Lighting can now be switched on and off
- LumiX engine provides visual feedback in case of errors
- Added command "distance" for printing out the distance to an object detected by the ultrasonic sensor
- Added command "stealth" and "light" for switching the lighting on and off
- Fixed bug #1912142116 (#11)
- Added automotive drive module (NaviX 0.1beta; auto.py) CAUTION: THIS MODULE CAN END UP IN AN INFINITE LOOP! PLEASE USE WITH CARE!
- Added NaviX to selftest
- Renamed internal variables because of development guideline
- EXPERIMENTAL: Added 'stealth'-mode
- EXPERIMENTAL: Added 'debug'-mode
- Added lighting control engine "LumiX"
- Removed syntax error in help()
- Fixed bug #121020141714
- Added updater/installer
- Removed the selftest at the program's beginning
- Added command "help" for showing a short command overview
- Added command "selftest" for testing your wiring
- Added motor control engine "MoviX"
- Added simple command line interface