Have you ever bought a toy car for your kids only to be disappointed by its shockingly underwhelming speed? Well, before you banish that toy to the attic or cupboard of no return, first try this genius life hack that won’t only make it much faster and much more fun, but will also make the perfect parent-child bonding project. So let’s see how to turn that toy from slow to GO!
When it comes to making these toy-cars faster, it's all about how much juice your car has vs. how much it can handle. Most manufacturers play it safe and underpower these cars because pushing their limits does increase the risks of something going wrong. While we discuss this fun and exciting bonding activity, we caution that this might be damaging to your car if not done carefully. If your toy-car is initially over 6v, there is a chance that this hack might not work because of something called the H-bridge, but that’s a bit more advanced and we won't cover it here. Ready? Then grab a screwdriver to safely open your toy-car (and be able to put it back together again!) and let's go!
Pro-Tip: get a container for all your screws and before you start taking out the insides of your toy-car, snap a quick pic with your phone. This really helps when putting everything back together, trust me!
Once open, you should be able to see at least these three parts: the batteries, the motor, and the circuit/control board. On your control board, there should be a microcontroller chip (a small black chip). In a perfect world, we would know what the voltage limitations on all the parts are before we introduce a higher voltage. But as this chip is most often the weakest link, we will use it as our safety guard regarding how much juice you can safely push through your toy-car.
On this chip, you should find a serial number that you can use to look up what voltage it can handle. Once we know our voltage limitation, we can start with the Frankenstein experiments of calculating the batteries’ voltages to add more or even bigger batteries like 9v batteries.
Pro-Tip: After linking all your batteries to the car, first try it to see if it works before reassembling the whole car. Put your car back together and if you don't have space for the extra batteries inside, try using some wires and insulation tape to MacGyver it onto your car. Remember when wiring in more batteries to wire them in series or inline. That means making sure that you attached the negative pole of your new battery to the positive pole of the old one and vice versa; however, a quick google search will make sure you’ve got it.
That’s it! Toy-car should be much more fun and exciting now. Go have fun teaching your kids about donuts and laughing at your neighbors’ faces when your kid’s car overtakes theirs.
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