Is it appropriate to use different electric motors for MCU car ?
As stated on the Rules and Regulations document. It states the following:
3.4 Are there any rules regarding the motors that can be used?
There are no rules regarding the number, manufacturer, or type of motors that can be used.
In the Renesas MCU Car Rally Rules and Regulations document (Version 2.0), under 1.2 Rules Regarding Machines, it states the following:
‘The length of the car may be decided by the competitor’
The rules and regulations document can be downloaded from in this forum under MCU Car Rally Europe > Files > Documents
According to the rules and regulations document it states the following:
It must use up to eight AA alkaline batteries (LR6, 1.5V) or AA secondary (rechargeable) batteries (NiCad or NiMH, 1.2V) as a power source.
If you come across this prompt, you may have the ‘product’ version instead of the free evaluation version. To download the evaluation version please visit the following link https://www.renesas.com/en-eu/software/D3017335.html.
In the first ‘heats’ round, all racers will race 3 laps of the track. If you progress to the final, your car will be expected to complete a race of 5 laps. You may change batteries before each race (heats or finals) but you cannot replace mid-race.
Currently, Renesas Flash Development Toolkit & FDT Basic are not compatible with Windows 10. To program your car you will need access to a Windows 7/8 machine. If you cannot use a suitable machine please contact info@mcurally.com to let us know.
The support team have a limited stock of spare parts. If you require one please contact the support team with your request & we will try to arrange a replacement for you.
The ‘LM350 add-on set’ enables greater voltage to the drive motors whilst maintaining correct voltage supply to servo motor & MCU board. It has been an option-fit addition for the Japanese MCU Rally.
However, the set is not available from Renesas Europe & cannot be supplied to teams. We therefore encourage you to look at alternative ways in which you could supply the motors with extra drive, using the info from the manuals that talks about the LM350 voltage regulator as a place to start.
Note: take care if you plan to boost the drive voltage & make sure you read all the information provided in the Program Explanation Manual section 1.3 concerning extra voltage, so that you do not damage any of the components.
Included in the download from the MCU Rally site is FDT & FDT Basic. Your PC may only create a shortcut for the full FDT but locate the Basic version in your program list & try this instead – Basic is much simpler.
The MCU board should support E1 programming but this requires an additional 10-pin header (not supplied in kit).
The RX62T & RX62G are nearly identical (the reason they are grouped together in the same datasheet). They can be treated in the same way & all of the supplied code has been trialled with the RX62G board provided to teams.
If you did want to do a comparison you can view the product overview pages here:
http://www.renesas.eu/products/mpumcu/rx/rx600/rx62g/index.jsp
http://www.renesas.eu/products/mpumcu/rx/rx600/rx62t/index.jsp
If you require more processing power or would like to section off functionality to more than one processor you may add additional MCUs to your car. These must be Renesas MCUs. Renesas are unable to provide such additional hardware however, so teams must source extra hardware independently.
There are different options available for different needs – for example an additional MCU target board to look at is the GR-Sakura RX63N development board (Full). Please get in touch with the support team for more info on additional hardware.
The Rally Rules indicate that the car must be controlled via an MCU, MPUs are not permitted.
The basic kit comes with 4 motors in total, two are included in the High-Speed Gearbox set & two are labelled ‘MCR’. Please use the motors marked MCR as these are matched to the voltage supplied by the default motor control board. More info can be found in the datasheet.
if you copy and paste this link: http://www.mabuchi-motor.co.jp/cgi-bin/catalog/e_catalog.cgi?CAT_ID=rc_260ra You can upgrade to new motors if you wish but these will not be supplied to teams.
It is indeed possible to write and retrieve this sort of data and one method (with the bonus of being able to use the existing hardware as it is) is to use the on-board flash memory. This is non-volatile memory as with say a USB stick and through Renesas’s Simple Flash API, you can look into how you might be able to log and view lap data. Have a look at the links below as a starting point:
http://documentation.renesas.com/doc/products/mpumcu/apn/rx/r01an0544eu0250_rx.pdf
http://www.renesas.com/support/downloads/download_results/C1000000-C9999999/mpumcu/rx/an_r01an0544eu_rx_flash.jsp.
The race track is made from Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) foam sheet (Foamex).
A base white layer of foamex is machined; matt black & matt grey PVC plastic inserts are then added to form the black track & track markings.
There are instructions on making a test track from card & masking tape included.
No, everything you need is in the car kit or at www.mcurally.com.
A quick start guide will be provided with the supplied kit to assist you in the initial stages.
The event is primarily aimed at university entrants. However, depending on the level of interest, we may run a parallel non-university challenge.
Renesas staff are not permitted to enter although they may participate in exhibition sessions.
There is no cost for Renesas Partner Universities. Car kits are supplied free of charge to partner universities subject to availability. You will be expected to pay your own travel costs to the challenge event in Germany in the first quarter of following year. Renesas will provide overnight accommodation.