Hello geeks! I am working on a robotics/computer vision project, relies heavily on a miniature car. I am looking for a car(to be controlled through an Ardunio) a tad larger than regular RC cars which can carry the load of a Kinect mounted on top, and has regular front wheel steering.

I looked into getting a regular RC car, and issuing the commands from the Arduino, but most RC cars can't cope with a Kinect on top.


I am looking to either build from scratch or get a car specifically designed for applications like Robotics. I would pay up to $50 as long as it is worth the price. So where do you guys suggest I look?
I got this a couple of months back from Katranji for around 50$
@xterm, he needs to mount a Kinect...
I'm skeptic about finding a ready-made miniature car that would carry the weight of the whole thing at 50$. I mean, the Kinect weighs at about half a kg (if not a bit more), plus you have to load a battery to power up the Kinect (unless you have a power board that is generating 12V at 1A, and even then you would have weight issues). Not to mention the controller board which would be mounted on the car for steering and receiving the remote signals to operate the Kinect.

You can try finding a used kid's pedal car and mount on some motors for remote control, but even then the price would be above 50$. If you decide to built the chassis from scratch, you're looking at a 100$ budget for the metal sheets (more if you decide to go with stainless steel which is rust proof) and rods... assuming of course that you're working in a university's workshop or have a friend mechanic who owns a metal workshop, otherwise you have labor charges to think about.

I advise you to reconsider the budget set for this project.