Build a Car With Your Kid · Chapters 13 and 36
After the car: where to go next
The car book is free, and the whole build is in it. If your child wants more, these are the next steps I make, with what each one costs today. Prices change and offers come and go, which is why the book prints none: this page is where they live.
None of this is needed to finish the book. Everything the car needs is in its pages.
On sale today
Book
Make It Connect
Why an Arduino’s Bluetooth link fails, and how to fix it: every module this car can use (the HC-06 and the HM-10 in depth), renaming a module, the iPhone question, and what to do when the phone says connected and nothing happens. Its car chapter uses the same pins as this car.
$15 for the PDF, from the book’s page.
Course
The weekend build
Eight short lessons on this same car, ending with voice control and a car that drives itself. Every sketch compiled; a priced parts list.
Today it comes only together with Make It Connect: $12 for the pair at the launch price (the first 100 buyers), then $24. It isn’t sold on its own yet.
Not ready yet
Course
The Troniction Academy
Two stages, from never having written code to programs of your own design, with graded work and a certificate for each stage. It’s the next step after Part 4 for a child who enjoyed predicting and changing the code.
It isn’t open for enrolment yet, so there is no price to give. It will be here when there is.
The upgrades
Chapter 36’s list, roughly from the smallest step to the largest. None of them has been built on the book’s car yet, so there are no wiring or code steps for them. When one has been built and tested, its guide goes up here.
| Upgrade | What it adds | What it teaches | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlights and reversing lights | Four LEDs on the sketch’s unused letters | Why an LED needs a resistor; free pins; filling in a branch | Planned for the next edition; not built |
| Stop before the wall | An ultrasonic distance sensor at the front | Timing a sound echo; a car that decides for itself | Planned for the next edition; not built |
| Follow a line | Two line sensors and a taped track | Turning sensor readings into a rule table | Planned for the next edition; not built |
| The fail-safe | The car stops by itself if the phone goes quiet | Why “no news” must mean “stop”; timing without delay() | Planned for the next edition; not built |
| Your own remote page | A web page of your own that drives the car (HM-10 cars) | HTML, JavaScript and Web Bluetooth | In Make It Connect, Part 4 |
The fail-safe is the one I would do first, even though it’s the least exciting. The car keeps doing the last thing it was told: if the phone’s battery dies while it is driving, it keeps driving. Before you start any of them, check which pins are free on your car: 2 and 3 belong to the Bluetooth module, 4 to the buzzer, and 5, 6 and 9 to 12 to the motor driver.
Free, and not mine
Arduino’s own documentation has the official reference for every function in the sketch, and a getting-started guide for the board. It’s written for adults, but a parent and child can read it together.
A local makerspace or school robotics club is often the best next step of all: other people building, and someone to show your child what you can’t.
On this site, free: the labs, the explainers and every Bluetooth symptom with its fix.