1. OVERVIEW

At the heart of this project is a customizable remote-controlled car that responds to real-time control inputs, capable of handling speed adjustments, directional changes, and even extended features like lights or sensors. The foundational setup uses ESP-NOW for transmitter and receiver devices, allowing you to wirelessly guide the car’s behaviour. While the design and physical appearance of the RC car can vary wildly depending on your creativity and available hardware, the control system remains elegantly efficient. To facilitate wireless communication between devices, the system employs ESP-NOW , which is a lightweight and connection-free protocol ideal for fast, low-latency data transmission between ESP32 microcontrollers. Though ESP-NOW is used under the hood, the spotlight remains on the RC car itself.

An ESP-NOW-based remote controller sends control data wirelessly using the ESP-NOW protocol to the remote-controlled car. ESP-NOW enables fast and efficient communication between ESP32 devices without the need for a Wi-Fi router, network, or pairing. The provided tutorial demonstrates a functional setup where a transmitter sends data to a receiver to define the car’s speed and direction, forming the core communication loop. While the baseline implementation focuses on movement, additional features like lights, sensors, or telemetry can easily be integrated by expanding the source code. This modular design gives users the freedom to customize both the appearance and behaviour of their RC car, resulting in endless creative possibilities.

1.1. ABSTRACT

To enable real-time remote operation of the RC car, the system translates joystick x- and y- axis inputs into PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) signals that control the DC motors. These PWM values are stored in a predefined data structure, which is then transmitted wirelessly using ESP-NOW — a low-latency, connectionless communication protocol developed by Espressif. Both the transmitter and receiver modules are based on ESP32-C3 microcontrollers.

On the transmitter side, the joystick’s X and Y coordinates are continuously monitored and converted into PWM parameters. These values are packed into the data structure and sent via ESP-NOW to the receiver.

The receiver module listens for incoming ESP-NOW packets, extracts the PWM control data, and applies it directly to the DC motors. This communication flow allows the RC car to respond instantly to user input, managing speed and direction without any physical connection between the devices.