Bluetooth Controlled Boat

This instructable demonstrates how to create a toy motor boat controlled via the Bluefruit connect app. The boat can move forward, backwards, left, right, and the LED lights on the boat can be changed to any color on the color wheel via the app on Mobile phone or the computer wirelessly.

General Build

USB Data cable (USB A to Micro B)  

Adafruit Circuit Playground Bluefruit  

Continuous Servo Motors (FS90R)   x2

Small Alligator Clip to Male Jumper Wire Bundle x3 in each  x2

Skewers

Scrap Cardboard

Hot Glue Gun

Wire Cutters

Wire strippers

Scissors

Tape (optional)

Copper Wire (optional)

Soldering Machine (optional) *you will need an extra set of Small Alligator Clip to Male Jumper Wire Bundle x3 in each if you don't solder the LEDs

Power Source (for this there are a few options) Only need 1 of 3

Lithium Ion Polymer Battery  

3x AAA Battery Holder with On/Off switch and 2-pin JST (requires 3 AAA batteries)

Adafruit micro Lipo USB Lilon/Lipoly Charger  

Lights 

Mini Skinny NeoPixel Digital RGB LED Strip 1m (White 30 LED 1m)

These lights are currently out of stock and the link has been removed but any Circuit Playground compatible LED strip will work

Boat (3D Print, buy on Amazon, build out of household materials)

I 3D printed my boat with a build from Tinkercad , but toy boats purchased from Amazon as well as milk cartons cut in half will work

Using a hot glue gun create a spiral around the skewer to make the propellers. Gradually adding layers on top increases the size of the screws. You will need two as identical and symmetrical as possible to propel your boat. Once the screws are created, you need to attach them to the servo attachment. To do this first cut out 2 pieces of cardboard the same size as the circular servo attachment. Poke a hole through the cardboard circle with the skewer and attach it with hot glue. Then attach the servo piece to the propeller by hot gluing it to the piece of cardboard. Now you can attach and detach the propellers from the motor. Your propellers should look like the second example when finished. They are ready to be attached once we construct the boat!

The next step is creating a small rest for the servo motors that will extend off of the boat. I used small pieces of leftover skewer to create a small platform for the servos to rest on, but you can also use cardboard or any other material you see fit as long as it isn't too heavy (you won't want to compromise the boat with too much weight). After using hot glue to attach the servos to the platforms, you will need to attach them to the side of your boat. I used a skewer that extended the width of the boat and was secured to the sides of the boat with hot glue, but depending on the height of the sides of your boat you may need more or less support. Make sure the propellers are angled into the water securing it with hot glue. My boat used 4, 1 inch skewer pieces for the vertical supports and 5, 1 inch skewer pieces for the horizontal supports and hot glue to secure them. Once placed on the boat I used tape to fasten the wires to the middle support.

The LEDs should be modified (cut) or left alone based on user preferences. I choose to have my LEDs go around the outside rim of the boat and this required cutting the strip at about the half way point which resulted in 13 LEDs. I then used a glue gun to attach the LEDs to the side of the boat and made sure to start and end at the back of the boat so that there was enough space for the circuit playground to rest inside the boat.

Servos

The servos should have their Brown wire attached to GROUND, Red wire attached to 3.3V or VOUT, and the Orange wire connected to A2 or A3. The right servo will be wired to A2 while the left servo will be wired to A3

LEDs

LEDs should follow the wiring Red to VOUT or 3.3v, White to A1, and Black to GROUND. I chose to solder these wires, but alternatively using a wire stripper and alligator clips should work fine as well, but this may add unwanted weight to the boat. If you decide to solder these LEDs on you will need copper wire and a soldering machine.

Power Source

The Lithium Ion Polymer Battery connects to the Circuit Playground through the port on top. Other power sources mentioned in components are also possible but vary depending on the size of your boat.

Download the code below on you Circuit Playground Bluefruit through Circuit Python on your Laptop or Desktop with it connected to you computer using the data cable mentioned in components. If you need help installing circuit python and downloading the file visit this tutorial (https://youtu.be/Wa1E8ze3v04). Make sure to save you file as code.py to your Circuit Playgorund Bluefruit.

Once the app is downloaded you can connect to your boat by finding the user name under visible devices after your boat is connected to power. Most of the time it is difficult to see the true name of your device so look for the device that is Uart capable and this will most likely be your device as long as you don't have multiple boats or Uart programmed devices around. Once connected you can navigate to the control pad and color picker. The control pad has 5 working buttons. The UP arrow makes the boat go forward, the DOWN arrow makes the boat go in reverse, the RIGHT arrow make the boat turn right, and the DOWN arrow makes the boat turn left. The 1 button stops all of the servos entirely and the 2 button changes the color of the boat to whatever is set in the color picker. To change the color of the boat you will need to navigate to the color picker, choose a color, and then make sure you Send Selected Color using the button at the bottom before navigating back to the color picker and hitting the 2 button. Failure to do so will no result in a color change. You are now ready to have your boat navigate the seas!!!