My friend (former president of Solar Splash) and I wanted something fun to build on weekends while I was up in California for my summer internship building drones. Having recently seen the fun electric go karts could be at the Bay Area Maker Faire during the Power Racing Series races, I decided on a go kart build. We ended up deciding to purchase a frame and simply swap the drive train with our own, and the Razor Ground Force Drifter Fury seemed a prime candidate!

Assembly went pretty smoothly and we were basically ready to test it out after four weekends. The first weekend was mainly figuring out wiring, testing the electronics, and laying out electronics. We also found out we could slip the tires from 7" Harbor Freight wheels over the existing 5" rear drift tires for some necessary traction. On the second we mounted everything, and ran some preliminary tests without the chain installed using an RC transmitter and receiver. On the next, I got an Arduino into the mix to be able to read the brake switch and provide much better control to the ESC, as it was not designed for the analog throttle on the kart. I wrote all the code for that, including interruption of the throttle signal when the brake is active, and all the analog voltage to PWM translation, and we tested it out with a 25% throttle limit with the chain. Finally, the fourth weekend, we reinforced the motor mount a bit and upped to 60% throttle for a real test. The main photo above shows the kart with red LED under-glow the day of our first real test run.

Plenty of radio controlled scale models are bought and sold each year, but many scratch-builders make their own primarily from EPP foam or foam sheets. The most common construction material is known as DTFB: Dollar Tree Foam Board. This was my material of choice. Below is the collection of tools I acquired to enter this new hobby.

My first attempt at a scratch-build was something I thought would be easy due to its simplicity- a flying wing. However, it turned out to be incredibly difficult to fly, as someone who had never flown before. I did however learn a lot in the process. Because the wings were two pieces, it was very hard to make them perfectly symmetrical, and therefore the plane refused to balance properly

After a particularly hard crash, the motor ripped off the rest of the plane and even after repairs I decided to try and build something easier to learn from: a trainer. A plane designed to be simple and easy to fly, easy to balance, easy to build. Experimental Airlines, a popular scratchbuilding Youtube channel, had the perfect plane: the Noob Tube. A few hours of guides later and I was on my way.

With added polyhedral winglets, this plane's 30 inch true airfoil wing reaches a full wingspan of about 42 inches. It's a big plane, weighing in at around 680 grams, but it's proven much more durable than the flying wing design. Due to its size, it isn't as badly affected by wind, and with a 3 channel control scheme its relatively easy to fly. One throttle channel for speed, one rudder channel for yaw, and one elevator channel for pitch. Roll is balanced out by the polyhedral wing returning it to level after turns. It was possible for even a total noob like me to fly!