In this tutorial I will show you how I built a beast of a 3D Printed RC tank or a radio-controlled tracked vehicle, featuring clean, all-black design, some cool LED lighting and a dual speed gearbox. That’s right, I specifically designed a gearbox for this tank so I can choose a lower or higher gear depending on terrain or the application that is used for, and so get either higher torque or higher speed.
You can watch the following video or read the written tutorial below.
Overview
If you follow me, you might know that some time ago I already built a 3D printed RC tank, which was cool, but a bit underpowered. That’s why now for this build I’m using 200W DC motor for each track and in combination with this gearbox, the tank has plenty of power to conquer any terrain or to have some fun doing burnouts or donuts with it.
Talking about having fun, I installed an addressable led strip for the lights, which gives endless possibilities for creating stunning light effects. For this video I made a Police lights strobe effect, which is so cool driving around with it, especially at night
As for the suspension, on each side, the tank is supported on three coil springs and shock absorbers, with two roadwheels for each of them. That allows the vehicle to run smoothly on uneven terrain and climb obstacles while maintaining good contact surface between the tracks and the terrain.
Of course, everything is 3D printed and 3D files are available for downloading, so you can build one on your own.
For controlling the tank, I’m using a cheap commercial RC Transmitter which sends commands to it.
At the tank, there is a suitable RC receiver which receives the commands and sends them to a microcontroller. The brain of this platform is an Atmega2560 microcontroller-based board and for easily connecting everything together I made a custom PCB which can be simply attached on top of the board.
Nevertheless, now buckle up as I will walk you through the entire process of building this RC tank, starting from the design, 3D printing, assembling and connecting the electronics components, to programing the microcontroller.
Designing the Tank
I designed this tank using Onshape.
More details about the design process coming soon…
3D Model and STL Download Files
You can view the 3D model of this RC tank directly on your web-browser with Onshape.
Onshape is the professional grade cloud native 3D CAD & PDM system that I use for my projects.
I recommend that mechanical engineers and product designers check out Onshape, you and your company can use Onshape Professional for free up to 6 months at https://Onshape.pro/HowtoMechatronics
You can get the 3D model of this RC tank/ robot platform , as well as the STL files for 3D Printing from Cults3D.
Assembling RC Tank
Here are all of the 3D printed parts, so we can start assembling the tank. To be honest, there is so much 3D printing. It takes like several days to print everything, and not just time, but we also need several spools of filament.
For the track links alone, because there are 214 track links total, we need around 500g and 30 hours of 3D printing. The main body of the tank needs around 1kg of filament, if divided in two sections like here, 500g and around 12 to 18 hours for each section. Also, many of the parts need to be 3D printed with support, so we need to do spend some time cleaning.
BOM
Here’s a list of components needed for assembling this RC tank project. The list for the electronics components can be found below in the circuit diagram section of the article.
| Component | Quantity | Purchase Links |
|---|---|---|
| RC Shock Absorbers | 8 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| Ball Bearing 686 – 6x13x5mm | 18 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| Ball Bearings 624 – 4x13x5mm | 44 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| Ball Bearing 684 4x9x4mm | 6 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| M6 Threaded Rod | 300mm | Amazon | AliExpress |
| M6 Lock-nut | 4 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| M3 Threaded Inserts | ~20 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| M3 Grub Screw | ~30 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| M3 and M4 bolts and nuts | To be specified | Amazon | AliExpress |
| 2mm Welding Rod | ~12m | Amazon | AliExpress |
| M3 and M4 bolts and nuts | See list below | Amazon | AliExpress |
| Bolts | Nuts |
|---|---|
| M3x8mm – 10 M3x10mm – 10 M3x16mm – 20 M3x20mm – 10 M3x25mm – 10 M3x30mm – 10 M3x16mm countersunk – 20 M4x16mm – 10 M4x35mm – 20 M4x40mm – 20 M5x40mm – 2 | M3 Lock-nut – 50 M4 Lock-nut – 40 M5 nut – 6 |
Disclosure: These are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Electronics – RC Tank Circuit Diagram
let’s take a look at the electronics for the RC tank and explain how it works. The brain of this RC tank is an ATmega2560 microcontroller-based board.
You can get the components needed for this project from the links below:
| Component | Quantity | Purchase Links |
|---|---|---|
| DC Motor 895 – 12V 200W 3000RPM | 2 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| BTS7960 DC Motor Driver | 2 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| Servo Motor | 1 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| ATmega2560 – Arduino Mega Board | 1 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| 3S LiPo Battery – minimum 3000mAh | 1 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| LiPo Battery Connectors | 1 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| Flysky FS-i6X – RC Transmitter and FS-iA6B Receiver | 1 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| WS2812b Addressable LED Strip | 1m | Amazon | AliExpress |
| LM350 Voltage Regulator | 1 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| Trimmer Pot – 5k | 1 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| Terminal Block Connector | 4 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| Wires ~20AWG | ~3m | Amazon | AliExpress |
| Rocker Switch | 1 | Amazon | AliExpress |
| Resistors – 1k x1 – 2k x1 – 240 x1 | Amazon | AliExpress | |
| Capacitors – 0.1uF x1 – 1uF x1 – 400uF x1 | Amazon | AliExpress |
Disclosure: These are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Custom PCB Design
In order to keep the electronics components organized, I designed a custom PCB for the RC tank. The PCB will be compatible with the ATmega2560 microcontroller-based board to be directly mounted on top of it.
I ordered the PCB from PCBWay. Here we can simply upload the Gerber file, choose the properties of our PCB, and order it at a reasonable price.
I didn’t change any of the default properties except for the PCB color which I chose to be blue. You can find and download the Gerber from the PCBWay projects sharing community through which you can also directly order the PCB.
Finishing RC Tank Assembly
In this section I will explain how to connect everything together and complete this RC tank.
This section is still under construction.
Programming the RC Tank – Arduino Code
In this section I will explain how the Arduino code behind the RC tank works.
Please note that this section, as many other sections of this written article are still under construction. They will be done couple of days.
Good evening and congratulations on the project.
Why do you specify M6 threaded rod in the BOM if the gear holes are smaller? Plus in the video you said m4.
What is really needed?
Thank you
Hey, thanks! The M6 threaded rod is for the gearboxes shafts. In the video I said we need an M8 by mistake. The holes of the gears are 5.9mm, so that we have tight fit.
Hi, Dejan. Thanks for sharing this model. It looks awesome. I just bought the 3D plans and look forward to building them. I built the V1 tank a few months ago, and that was a lot of fun, too, but like you said, it was a bit underpowered for off-road stuff. I ended up with 260rpm motors to give it enough grunt for outdoor driving, but the V2 with the gears and powerful motors looks excellent. Thank you.