rc crawler mileage

[MrCataract]

might be crazy but i want to try to put an odometer on my crawler.
i'm aware that miles with a crawler could take alot of time and this may never work. but the idea is kool and itll be a fun project

[CruisinE2W]

RC Review threw a Garmin meant for cycling on his in a video I watched recently.

They're pretty compact and log more than just miles (elevation, speed etc).

Probably the easiest option?

[MrCataract]

Originally Posted by CruisinE2W

RC Review threw a Garmin meant for cycling on his in a video I watched recently.

They're pretty compact and log more than just miles (elevation, speed etc).

Probably the easiest option?

well that makes things alot easier because i honestly didnt know where i was going to start

[Greatscott]

There are options here...

A GPS would be the easiest, and it should track distance fairly well. The other problem is satelite reception, if you are in the mountains you may not get good data.

[MrAwesome987]

I agree, this would be cool data to see, just for fun. I'm not sure how many miles I have on some of my rigs, but it's got to be a few!

[OnTheTrail]

Sounds cool. Not sure how accurate it would work though. Unless something changed over the years, GPS (by design) is only accurate within a few feet. It you're doing some crawling at slow speeds and making some tight turns to go tackle the same line within a small area, I'm guessing it wouldn't register at all or wouldn't register very accurately. Even slow trail driving could be an issue. A bicycle is always moving at a forward (and mostly) straight direction so GPS would work okay.

To get the most accurate results, you may want to put a halls sensor of sorts on some rotational part of the truck like the drive shaft. Lots of calculation would be needed to calibrate the actual mileage but it could be done.

[MAC FAB]

There are also the Garmin watches for hiking that you can get tons of data from and get good satellite reception, connecting to many satellites. Compact, but would it be hidden on your rig or have emf issues? The Garmin on my road bike connects to 12 satellites. It would bring a new aspect to the hobby tracking avg. speed, distance, time, elevation, mapping your drive. Heck, I have a Garmin trekker or something (older yellow hiking unit) that I have put into my go fast cars to get max mph before, but not on the crawler. I'll have to give that a try and see what the data shows. It tracks speed, distance, elevation, maps your trail allowing way points and is about the size of a flip phone. Build a roof rack to hold it. Hmmm.....

[SurlyBurly]

I'm not sure how you would drive it, but there are lots of very small cable driven mechanical speedometers meant for motorcycles or bicycles that have odometers in them. They're cheap enough that it might be worth picking one up to gut and see if you can figure something out. Or maybe the gearbox out of a distance measuring wheel, the ones you walk with and every rotation of the wheel is a foot and it keeps a count.

[Stollenritter]

Originally Posted by MrCataract

might be crazy but i want to try to put an odometer on my crawler.
i'm aware that miles with a crawler could take alot of time and this may never work. but the idea is kool and itll be a fun project

A very interesting idea!
This has been discussed on this forum some time ago. Bike odometers on driveshafts or gearbox outputs have been discussed, but would not work out of the box (rpm to miles conversion is out of range).
There are also a few members on this forum who keep track of their rigs mileage, maybe they join in here.

[Almighty Malach]

Originally Posted by Stollenritter

A very interesting idea!
This has been discussed on this forum some time ago. Bike odometers on driveshafts or gearbox outputs have been discussed, but would not work out of the box (rpm to miles conversion is out of range).
There are also a few members on this forum who keep track of their rigs mileage, maybe they join in here.

I use Strava to keep track of the race/training miles on my 5k bomber. It works well for overall times and speeds, but for slow speeds and just goofing off it doesn't work as well. A mechanical odometer would be the best way to track mileage for slow crawling and trying the same line over and over.

[lonleycreeper]

Originally Posted by MrCataract

might be crazy but i want to try to put an odometer on my crawler.
i'm aware that miles with a crawler could take alot of time and this may never work. but the idea is kool and itll be a fun project

I have looking for the same thing myself.

Closest think I have accomplished is figure out over a series of trail runs, what my crawler/Trail Truck consumes in power over a mile. My Honcho, stock geared 35t brushed motor, consumed aprox 1000mah over a mile of trail running, giving me an approximation of miles on the truck. When I gave it to my brother, it was going on 350 ish trail miles. Trail Honcho, For Trailing

[Voodoobrew]

It wouldn't be hard to use an Arduino to track rotations of any rotating part using a sensor and some reflective mark. Then calibrate it against a known distance.
Will a mamba X track motor Rotations? That would be easy to use also. Then calculate gear reduction and tire diameter, or again just calibrate using a known distance.

[Timmahh]

You could make an app to calculate it. Using all the parameters of FDR, Wheel Size etc, calculate how much forward motion (distance) you get out of a set number of wheel revolutions. Then use that to calculate total distance. Make an app that will keep a running total of miles.

if you could program it, maybe able to make a custom digital readout like the ones a few people make for their rigs.

[Timmahh]

Originally Posted by Voodoobrew

It wouldn't be hard to use an Arduino to track rotations of any rotating part using a sensor and some reflective mark. Then calibrate it against a known distance.
Will a mamba X track motor Rotations? That would be easy to use also. Then calculate gear reduction and tire diameter, or again just calibrate using a known distance.

This was my other idea. And would be more accurate especially getting a read on a gear inside the tranny, or a drive shaft. Someplace that is unlikely to need replacing.