Zephyr is a high-performance RC Hypercar that I am building. It has 2 main focuses in regard to performance, both max top speed and also good cornering/f1 style racing.
- Top Speed: The max speed is achieved by its 4300kv single motor which drives the rear wheel shaft, which is built around a pretty lean gear ratio which in turn enables it to hit max speeds of 40-50MPH straight line.
- Precision Steering: On the cornering aspect of things, I am using a 20KG Digital servo to handle steering, utilizing steel cables to turn 2 front wheels, this enables me to have strong steering as well as allows me to use variable Ackerman Steering configurations by changing the tighnesses of each of the 4 cables.
- Active Aerodynamics: Also, this hypercar also has Active Aero enabled by dual SG90 servos that drive a inverted-airfoil rear wing! This in turn allows me to generate a lot of downforce on demand, which is pivotal in circuit racing as well as allows me to brake a lot faster while keeping my custom gear reduction system intact!
- FPV System: Zephyr also comes with on-board FPV with its custom designed controller module that enables live feedback and video streaming using an esp32-s3 and an OV2640 sensor!
I have always wanted to build my own rc-car, and have attempted to in the past but never got to actually building it. Hence, when #blueprint by hackclub came along, one of the first projects I wanted to make was a rc hypercar.
Beyond this, I really wanted to use brushless motors and ESCs because I've always only had the oppurtunity to work with low power DC motors. Also, honestly, this was a giant step in my journey of cad, having only really built low-spec projects in cad before like cubes! So building and designing this, the steering system, the power and transmisson, as well as the chassis, was a massive personal accomplishment. In fact, I had never used a lot of the tools like chamfer, draft, and loft in fusion 360 let alone design gears or tires before so this gave me a really big learning curve.
- I drafted the overall electical diagram, decided on parts as well as the overall characteristics
- Finalized parts and started on Schematic
- Finished the Schematic, Finished the PCB layout as well
- Finished the rest of the PCB
- Started on the cad, first did the front and rear wing
- Then did the wheels (pneumatic tire design, really proud of that)
- Then did the transmission system with the gears and rear setup
- Then did the steering (went through like 4 iterations before finalizing the cable based setup)
- Then did the base chassis (ie the areas for the esc, battery, pcb, wheel cutouts, rear axel holders, and a lot of integrating different components)
- Then spent a lot of time on the outer "Shell", which took so long because I wanted to get the Lemans hypercar esque look, tryed to use canvases and sketch around that but that did not end up working
- Somehow pulled through and finished that, then did the GH repo, finished BOM and did all else required for submission!
What is are the next steps for zephyr (how can I improve it)?
- Add a rear differential (hella complex) so that better cornering
- Make the gear system a lot more robust so it can handle a lot bigger of a motor
- Rely less on bushels for the steering system
- Add a larger, more powerful battery for more performance and longevity
- Make the front wing active as well
- Add headlights
PCB Gerber:
