Pinewood Derby Camera Car

thingiverse

This is a Pinewood Derby Camera Car. A fully compliant one. This specific design is my Turret car, as it spins almost 360 degrees and tilts up and down with precision. I used DesignSpark as my CAD tool of choice. Raspberry Pi Zero W powers the system. A LiPo Shim provides the necessary energy boost. A Random Toggle switch allows for easy switching on and off. Standard issue camera board captures high-quality images. A 6" camera cable connects to the board. Some wire and soldering complete the setup. RPi-Cam-Web-Interface enables seamless control (thanks to its genius creator!). I added a small wave spring/washer under the turret, which can be adjusted as needed. I started working on this project after Thanksgiving. The Pinewood Derby took place on February 16th. Two shoebox-sized containers were filled with iterations printed by my printer. There were countless iterations, and I ended up hot gluing pieces together. This particular design and assembly came out great, although I had two versions. The camera ribbon cable still needs some tweaking for relief. I want to try pinching the cable further down, but this setup worked reliably all day with some adjustments to screw tightness. Regarding the spring under the turret, I found it in a sample case and decided to use it. There are likely other options available at the local warehouse store, but I haven't explored them yet.