I Can Has A Robot!
I have finally found something to inspire another serious long-term static entry; my ongoing story of buying/fixing/hacking a couple of old Toymax RAD 2.0 toy robots. Read the first chapter of what is sure to be a ridiculously long process of turning an old toy into a modern marvel: Chapter One - I Can Has A Robot.
six comments:
Hey there,
Cool mods. I recently picked up a rad 1.0 from a garage sale and was going to make some mods myself. Did you find the range on this guy to be really bad? The remote that came with mine has an intact antenna, but there does not seem to be one on the robot itself. Any idea if these things had an internal antenna and if they just did not have a good range? Thanks.
barry () - 06 01 08 - 06:56
Hi Barry,
Yes, I do find the range of the remote to be extremely limited. In my experience it seems to work out to an (optimistic) distance of 10 feet! I have not opened the base of either of my RAD so I cannot confirm what kind of antenna it may sport, but I would be willing to bet it is a roughly 12 inch piece of insulated wire soldered to the receiver board, so there is a chance for some MILD hacking by better positioning the antenna inside the RAD and possibly to use a slightly longer piece of wire as the antenna… but don’t go nuts and use 20 feet of wire as you will not see any improvement and in fact might make it worse! Anything around 3 feet or so would be WAY more than enough. That said, I would be surprised if a new antenna improved the range by more than 5-10 feet… probably not what you were hoping for.
My plan? First, I am putting the entire remote in a new housing, so when I do this I will use a telescoping antenna in place of the crappy piece of hard wire they currently use. Second, I will experiment with providing the transmitter with slightly more power that it was designed for, in the hopes that it will boost the output as well. Lastly, and by far the most difficult, I can replace whole sections of the transmitter and receiver with off-the-shelf CB gear! YUP! RAD (or one of my RAD, anyway) uses 27.125MHz, which is CD channel 14, and even unmodified CBs can transmit for miles.
—Don
Don Stratton () - 06 02 08 - 08:43
I had a rad 2.0 given to me it had the remote but not the battery battery charger or the little foam rockets. Any advice on where I could find these items at low cost?
Hillary () - 10 21 09 - 12:26
Hi Hillary,
The battery and battery charger are actually fairly easy to deal with; the RAD uses standard 6v NiCd batteries used by various other remote control devices like R/C cars. I have a “Tyco 4-hour quick charger” and “Tyco 6.0v Jet Turbo” battery, which is relatively easy to find online (or even at your local Toys-R-Us). If you or someone you know has even rudimentary electrical skill you could easily adapt the RAD to accept conventional batteries (I would suggest using C or D cells, not AA and certainly not AAA).
I have heard that there is a guy who has made RAD rockets, and I took a look once, but as I recall his prices were absolutely absurd so I never bought any and did not bookmark his site. If you can’t find it using Google and some choice keyword searches then I would say you are unlikely to find any.
Good luck!
Don Stratton () (link) - 10 21 09 - 13:44
Hi,
I was wondering what I can use to replace the missles. I purchased my RAD 2.0 new years ago. Never thought to stock up on missles. They are the first to go. Thanks!
Susan () - 01 26 10 - 13:04
As I mentioned I do not know of a source for RAD missiles, but considering they are just spring-propelled pieces of foam-covered plastic you should feel free to experiment as it is unlikely that you could hurt anything. I would not be the least bit surprised if something like a Nerf missile would work, or something from some other child’s toy. if you ever figure out what to use please let me know!
—Don
Don Stratton () (link) - 01 26 10 - 14:06