Ivan Miranda’s RC Car Drives on the Ceiling

RC cars can be lots of fun, zooming about on the ground at impressive speeds. On the other hand, one thing they (obviously) don’t do well…

Jeremy Cook
5 years ago3D Printing

RC cars can be lots of fun, zooming about on the ground at impressive speeds. On the other hand, one thing they (obviously) don’t do well is travel on the ceiling or walls. While not exactly the design intent, that didn’t stop experimenter Ivan Miranda from trying to do so with a pair of drone-style props and motors.

His build consists of a carbon fiber rail for two — potentially expandable to four — motors/fans, and duct assemblies to help direct their thrust. Instead of lifting the car into the air, the motors are set up to apply force in the downward directly, the idea being to cancel out gravity altogether — plus a little extra for traction — when placed upside-down on the ceiling.

Initial tests included ramping the car into a 90° angle on the wall, which seemed to work well, but there wasn’t enough force to hold it in a fully inverted orientation. After some trials with a much smaller car, Miranda finally figured out his error with the larger vehicle, in that he’d installed the propellers in a (normal) orientation for lifting the car off the ground. Even though the motors were spinning in the correct direction, the inverted orientation produced less force than expected. Once reversed, the car stuck to the ceiling as expected, though horizontal travel is iffy at best.

Regardless of any issues along the way it’s still a fun an unexpected project, and one that Miranda is calling a success. He notes at one point that this experiment is “really, really, really scary” and quite loud, so be sure to take the appropriate precautions if you try something similar!

Jeremy Cook
Engineer, maker of random contraptions, love learning about tech. Write for various publications, including Hackster!
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