What it is
A radio-controlled car built around a Flysky FS-i6 transmitter and its matching iA6B receiver. The receiver feeds a standard brushed ESC on the throttle channel and a steering servo on the other. Simple, proven electronics — the point was to actually finish something, not to reinvent the wheel.
Why I built it
I wanted my first hardware project to be one I could reasonably finish. No custom protocol, no bit-banging. A 2.4 GHz radio, a receiver, a motor — the well-worn path. Completing it gave me the confidence to build the next one from scratch.
What's inside
- Flysky FS-i6 6-channel transmitter running stock firmware.
- iA6B receiver with PWM outputs, one per channel.
- Hobbyking 30A brushed ESC with BEC (so I didn't need a separate logic supply).
- 540-class brushed motor into a simple 2WD drivetrain.
- 9g servo for steering — overkill at this scale but I had one.
What I learned
The most useful thing I took away from this project wasn't technical — it was the habit of bench-testing everything before putting it in the chassis. I wasted a full afternoon tracing a problem that turned out to be a loose servo lead. Ten seconds on the bench would have caught it.
Technical takeaway: the ESC's BEC and the receiver logic share a ground, and if the motor side doesn't have proper decoupling, the receiver will brown out when the motor spikes. I didn't believe this until it happened to me.
What I'd do differently
The steering geometry is wrong. The servo is directly linked to the wheels with no Ackermann compensation, which means the inside wheel scrubs in tight turns. Fine for a first build; not fine for anything serious. If I ever revisit this, I'd redesign the knuckles.