RC or remote controlled cars and trucks are toys and models that belong to the category of RC toys. RC toys basically work on the principle of controlling the action of toy remotely by sending some signal. So, you are not actually touching the toy or are connected to the toy through wires. Instead, you send some signal from a distance which instructs the toy to perform some action. There are various kinds of toys and model designs that work on this principle. Such toys include cars, trucks, airplanes, helicopters, sailboats, motor boats, submarines, all types of robots etc. Basically, any type of machine that is capable of being controlled by electrical signals can be converted into a remote controlled machine.
Remote controlled cars and trucks perform exactly this function. As being cars and trucks, the tasks they do include running, turning or may be even carrying some load. Also, cars and trucks being capable of unlimited movement, controlling them remotely adds a whole new degree of freedom to them. Therefore, through the use of remote control, cars and trucks can move freely with greater speeds to larger distances without facing any problems of control and accessibility. The greatest advantage with RC cars is that they are much simpler in design and construction than other RC toys like airplanes, helicopters, motor boats or robots. These toys have lot other mechanics, design and operational features, for example, the design of a plane can be really complicated and will include a lot of considerations and expertise but build. Especially, if you are starting to work with remote controlled toys, cars and trucks can be the simplest ones that can get you started. Because of this purpose, we will mostly focus on the remote controlled cars and trucks, however, many topics of this book can be useful and relevant for other types of remote controlled toys as well.
Traditionally, there have been many different ways through which simple or oldest toys were controlled remotely. One very common method was through sound such as a clap or a tap. Till few years back, sound controlled cars were very popular. However, these cars had a lot of limitations. They only had very limited control and functionality as they could only understand few types of sound and couldn’t distinguish between them. So you could not make them to lot of functions like move forward/backward, turn, change speed etc. Also, their range of operation was also very limited. They couldn’t work properly when there were different loud sounds in the vicinity. Due to these limitations, sound controlled remote control cars had limited popularity and fan following.
The next generation of remote controlled cars was those that were electrically controlled. However, even in this category, the earliest cars were connected with wires to the controls. So, effectively, they were not remotely controlled in the true sense. Moreover, the wires were a major hindrance to their extent of freedom and degree of movement. This shortcoming again limited the scope of this technology, as with cars and other moving toys you want to have as much freedom as possible. Especially with cars, you want more speed and distance to really be able to enjoy it to its full potential.
The new advancement in technology that brought about a revolution and realized the true potential of toy cars was the radio control or remote control. Though radio control and remote control are slightly different terms with respect to technology and actual implementation, in today’s usage they are mostly used interchangeably. We will discuss the similarities and differences between these two terms in a later section. Here we want to emphasize on the importance of introduction of remote control in the field of toy cars or even all type of electrically controllable toys. Not only does remote control provides the luxury of controlling the cars or other vehicles from a distance without actually touching or holding them, but also opens up a lot of new possibilities of what the cars can do. They can now run much faster, have many more functionalities and motions and can have more many more controls.