Everything is tiny, the car itself and the electronics inside. Scaled down to 55% size of the original 1/10 scale OpenRC this thing is tiny. And that Autodesk Fusion 360 evangelist Lars Nyström managed to make it fully working with electronics is a achivement on it´s own. While there are people working on both scaled up (like the 250% version by ColorFabb) versions and scaled down versions this is the smallest one i´ve seen yet that´s fully functional.
Scaling things down
While scaling everything down can be quite the task and harder than it might seem. When looking at the possiblities of scaling it down Lars looked at different alternatives and decided that using electronics and some other parts from a existing RC car would be the best way to go. Looking into the options and the size of the electronics Lars decided that 55% of the original 1/10 scale would be “as low as you can go” atleast with this setup.
Using existing parts and electronics
He spent a good amount of time going thru the design and editing parts to fit the parts from the RC car he bought. The steering uses parts from that car but have been adapted for the F1 using parts of Lars own design. While the orginal car was 4WD Lars used only the rear parts making it RWD as the OpenRC F1. The car he used electronics and other parts from is available from several several sellers on ebay. For now the tires from the store bought car is also used but he also plans on printing the tires aswell.
Files & instructions coming soon
While Lars promises to release the files as soon as possible he´s also working on detailed instructions that will be available at a later date for those that want to make their very own, tiny OpenRC F1´s. Make sure you follow him on twitter and keep a eye out on his Thingiverse page so you won´t miss this one!