Here's a new way for father-son bonding (or if you're just generally into DIY); smart wooden car kits.
The developers of SmartWood have just launched a $50,000 Kickstarter campaign for their line of plywood-based Bluetooth controlled robot vehicles that aims to be the opposite of instant. They wanted the project to take time and care in making the cars, instead of it being instant then throwing it out.
Developers Gil Vismonsky, CEO of Academix Robotix, and engineer and developer Elad Shifman, chose plywood for the kit bodies because it’s easily recyclable and customisable. In the slick and slightly humorous video promoting their Kickstarter campaign, they show the smartphone-controlled vehicles can be painted in a variety of colours, so the creator/user can make it their own.
The Kickstarter was launched last Wednesday, and already, the company have managed to raised over $8,000 for their campaign, with over 100 backers, and still with 52 days to go to raise their campaign to the $50,000.
Build options include a 2-foot-long dragster, a Humvee army truck, and a crawler. All start as kits that include laser-cut plywood templates, wheels, screws, motors and a tiny, programmable Arduino motherboard that acts as the brain. Each kit, which builds one RC vehicle, comes with assembly instructions so easy to follow, that even a 6 year old could build one of the cars. The remote control software runs on Android and iOS smartphones, and the price will vary from $49 (£29), for the minibot, to $109 (£64), for the truck.
