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Help me "fix" my kids RC Fire Truck

177 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Fuell 
#1 ·
I know this isn't really the right spot (I didn't see any other subsection that would work for this) and figured the modding community would be able to answer my questions.

My son just turned 3 and Grandma got him an awesome fire truck he just loves. Theres just one issue, it comes with a remote control thats wired to the truck. My son likes to use this but also wants to play with it without the cable or remote and keeps trying to actually pull the cable off at times. So I was thinking I should be able to cut the wires and add some USB connectors or something similar. But I'm not good with this kind of stuff and would like some help and some info to make sure I'm not gonna make a huge mistake.

Heres YT vid of the truck (not my vid)

The remote takes 6x AA batteries and has 6 buttons and 2 joysticks (standard controls, 1 stick does forward and backward, the other steers) The sticks aren't analog, so no matter how hard or light you press, same action.
Edit> Oh, it also has a small water pump that allows you to squirt water from a tiny reservoir in the back, so not sure if that makes a difference, as theres no batteries in the truck itself for this, just in the remote.

So I was wondering if I could just cut the wire close to the back of the truck and use a Mini USB connector to allow me to remove the controller when needed. I'm thinking mini USB as its small but still sturdy unlike micro USB which I'm sure he'd have broken in a day. Also, because I'm cheap and have mini USB connectors laying around.

But... I'm a noob to this kind of stuff and know pretty much nothing about electrical so I'm not sure the USB cables could even handle the power or not. Any1 have thoughts/opinions or alternate suggestions on what I could do? Please keep it as cheap as possible as only my gf is working right now, my sons Bday was 2 days ago, Xmas is coming and I'm moving into a new place on the 29th. Kind of a perfect storm of making you poor haha.

I just want info from people who know what their doing before I start a project I can't do and end up ruining it, or picking a connector/cable that will not be able to handle the job and have to start from scratch again.
 
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#2 ·
I believe mini USB has 5 wires. By my count, you're going to need at least 11.

stick 1 left
stick 1 right
stick 2 left
stick 2 right
6 buttons
ground
 
#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom B View Post

I believe mini USB has 5 wires. By my count, you're going to need at least 11.

stick 1 left
stick 1 right
stick 2 left
stick 2 right
6 buttons
ground
And this is why I post for help before I start anything like this, cause I have no clue what I'm doing haha.
 
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