Thank you for posting this video of the crawlspace crawler. I was candidly at a loss trying to find a system for less than 2k or more. Today, I finished my shopping at Servocity & Amazon where I purchased about $990 of parts. I am going to build our Crawlspace Recon with my daughter as a homeschooling project as well. Ultimately, I am too old and broken to crawl around under my house but I need it done every so often. I appreciate you and the information you shared and hope to post a video of our finished product in a couple of weeks. Thank you!
Kyle, thank you for your comments. I'm glad I could pass a project along to someone else. I'd love to see what your finished crawler looks like. If you have any questions during your build, I'd be happy to help.
Thanks for this idea. I have a very similar crawlspace - obviously the (old) house was built *without* maintenance in mind, but just to be sold as quickly as possible. I was young and inexperienced when I bought it. If I were staying here forever, I will definitely buy/build that robot. But we've decided to move, so I won't. But I just admire smart thinking!
"just for fun, not a real human skull" Just what somebody hiding a human skull would say :p Kit looks great! Only changes I could see really improving anything is installing front and rear light bars that fit between the wheels front and rear of the chassis, and try and get the cameras a little lower/lower profile to get the overall height down, but this looks like it fit your purpose perfectly. Good job!
The light bar I already had was 12" so it had to go above the wheels. The camera antenna came up to about the same height. 6" clearance is fine for me, but a redesign could get it down to 4 or 5 inches with different lighting. The landscape LED floodlights, even with diffusers, almost "blinded" the cameras with hot spots of light. A shorter light bar would be perfect. Thanks for your comment.
Fantastic. It's a little elaborate and pricey for my limited needs today. But if you wired houses regularly, this seems like a real no brainer. I find it crazy that someone hasn't made an affordable off the shelf drone like this that is either intended specifically for cable pulls or is versatile enough that people regularly use them for it. You can buy flying drones that do most of this all day for a few hundred bucks. But when you search for something wheeled, it's either a toy that goes too fast and has novelty features or a DIY raspberry pi kit that becomes its own project. I especially love the horror/adventure flick music in the background. That's exactly the feeling I have when I crawl under my house. 🖐️😮 💀
I've had several comments posted about being able to pull cable or home security wire. Sound like a great idea until that cable gets caught or snagged on something and then you have to go crawl to rescue your crawler. Would the crawler need to go find the cable and then drag it back? There'd have to be some sort of grabber with a catch and release mechanism. I don't know how much "pull" my system has until the wheels slip in dirt. I imagine a drone has even less horizontal pull. I would also imagine that a drone would kick up a lot of dust as it flew through a narrow dirty area. So many things to consider. Thanks for your comments, and don't give up. Half of the fun is building it.
@@jeffg8232 I wasn't referring to using a flying drone for wire pulling. Your wire puller is a wheeled drone. People are just accustomed to hearing the word drone used mostly in relation to flying devices. I was just comparing how the same level of features and technology in flying drones is much more affordable and widely available than wheeled drones, even though it should be cheaper to buy or build a wheeled one. The $600 in parts and who knows how much in labor that you spent would buy a pretty nice flying drone. It's crazy how those have such a huge market but nobody is producing something like your crawler at the same or lower price point. Personally, I can think of way more uses for your crawler than I can think of for an aerial drone. People just like the idea of things that fly and then they get bored of them.
@@jeffg8232 Regarding getting stuck, I'm planning to attach a recovery rope to the $50 RC car i bought to attempt my sprinkler wire install. We will see. Right now I'm just practicing driving it to make sure I don't bang around too fast. I guess I'll have to make videos too. 👍
as an rc/fpv hobbyist and installer for the cable company, I've considered building something like this. if you could build an apparatus to grab and pull wire and feed it into a hole, you might have a million dollar idea here.
Jeff this is awesome I am literally going through the same thing right now bellying under my house having to dig just to get enough room to go further I really could use one of these!!
Great guide. Working on a build following yours, thank you. Just couldn't get servo city or gobilda to swap motors out :( will have to buy them separately.
Sorry to hear that Servocity won't swap motors. I built my crawler in early 2020, and the kit was called "the prowler" , as opposed to the current "Recon" kit. Speed isn't needed in that rough area.
Parts List Chassis/Wheels/Tires/Motors Kit “Recon” kit 60 RPM Motors Servocity.com All other hardware was purchased separately: Motor Speed Controller Roboclaw 2X7A set to differential (tank) mode FLYSKY FS i6X RC controller + FS-iA10B 10 channel reciever 12V - 5V converter for camera power TOBSUN Camera/transmitter 2 ea EACHINE TX05 FPV Camera from Banggood Pan/Tilt servo assembly RC servo for rear camera RC switches for light bar and camera power selection 12” LED light bar from LED Wholesalers.com Volt/Amp meter display 6 circuit terminal block Power switch and fuse 12V Battery AGM Sealed lead acid 3 AH U Bolts for lifting.
Based on the dimensions, it looks like you could replace the battery with a Dakota Lithium 12V 10A battery, or even possibly the 23A version. While I imagine the 1 hour run is generally sufficient, you could triple it.
@@walterkarpynka8343 The Hammerhead kit is really cool. If I were doing this all over, I'd get one. I don't know if it was available when I was building it. Thanks for the suggestion.
Very cool project! If I may comment on one detail: A lead-acid battery being drained at a 1/C rate (as you describe it lasting about an hour) may only deliver 60% of its rated capacity. Notice how the 10-hour rate is already .2Ah lower than the 20-hour rate, and that's a difference of only 150 milliamps, extrapolate that to a draw 10x higher. That's ~2 amp-hours from a battery that weighs over 3 pounds... you don't have to go overboard with lithium, but even a 12V nimh battery with ~3000mah would double your runtime for ~$40 while taking up half the space and weight. (not that either is particularly crucial to your build.) That's also not a deep-cycle battery, so it may begin losing capacity fairly quickly in this application.
I didn't think that far into it, but I did think it would make sense to just get or make an adapter to use whatever brand cordless tool batteries you already have.
Cool. I got a basher because i wanted something with enough mass and a good suspension system to driver around FPV smoothly, but i couldn't use it indoors because the slowest it can go sends it zooming across the floor. This looks like a good build. I've actually been considering something similar but i wanted to use omniwheels and i haven't throught the built through yet, i'll probably copy your specs. Thanks :) Might also finally be able to put my three way video switcher to use.
Thanks! I've been very happy with the slow speed that those 60 rpm motors have. Beginner's luck, I guess, this is my first try at an RC vehicle, although I had an excellent mentor who does trucks, drones, and fixed wing RC with a passion. I just switch power between front & back camera. Sort of crude, but I don't use the rear camera much, only if its in a spot that's too tight to turn.
Someone else can kit this out if they wish. Sounds like work to me. I'm retired for 3 years now and I'm enjoying it. I finally had the time this year to learn to do RUclips videos.
Great build!! Just need a robot arm to do maintenance work and you'd never need to go under ever again. There are some great kits out there too. There are some great lego builds I've seen for bots with 3 sets of wheels for more complex terrain.
robot arm could also mean a good game for kids. "hey kids pick up and move all the rocks back to the opening" then you can slowly make the terrain easier to work with
Hi Jeff, thank you very much for this. Could you post the wattage and voltage of the 12" light bar - there are so many types out there that it is hard to choose. Also what mW output power mW setting did you set on your TX05 transmitter. I read that 5mW is enough because the distance is not great. I started on something similar in 2019 also with similar parts from servocity but never finished as it was overly ambitious. Never really could get it all to work. But after seeing your RUclips I am inspired to convert it to something similar to yours.
The lightbar is a 12" low profile aluminum LED rigid strip. Sold at LEDwholesalers.com. It can run on 10V to 30 V, 5Watts. I use these bars for under-cabinet lighting. Very reliable, although I eliminated the USB-like connector and soldered in a dedicated wire.
This is exactly what I am looking for! I have tried multiple RC cars but they either got stuck or flipped over due to the uneven ground under the crawl space!
Those RC cars are too fast, as well. Go look at Servocity.com and look at their chassis kits. A great place to start. I used an earlier version of the "RECON" kit, with lower RPM motors. Lower speed, a lot more torque. My crawler has never got stuck or flipped, other than once getting tangled in some telephone wires.
@@jeffg8232 I have ordered the hammerhead + 12v control bundle as you suggest below. How did you ask them to send you the 60 rpm motors? Did you place the order and then left a message for that request?
@@yingxu7262 This was several years ago when I built it. I remembering getting on the phone with their customer service group, and requesting substituting the low RPM (60 RPM) motors, but I don't know if was before or after I had placed the order. I'd call ASAP. Or maybe you could exchange them after you get the kit. Let me know how the Hammerhead chassis works. That wasn't available when I built, but now I wish I had it.
RJ Thanks, but I'm not interested in building another one of these. Quite frankly, I'd go to ServoCity.com and look at their Hammerhead or Recon chassis kit with the 12V Radio Control bundle. That gives you chassis, motors, Motor controller, RC sender & receiver, and battery. All you'd have to do is add the light bar and cameras. Too Easy.
@@jeffg8232 I will do just that! Thank you!! One other question: what FPV camera unit do you recommend? I need something I can use for shoring and plumbing inspections under home... so will need something pretty clear with FPV and ability to record video and photos
RJ Several suggestions: The off-the-shelf kit from Servocity has 300 RPM motors. I had them substitute 60 RPM motors to give 5X torque. You don't need speed in a crawl space. I'd also forget the 2nd rear view camera. I rarely use it and it ties up 2 channels ( pan servo and camera power switch) on your receiver module. I'd also just use a simple voltage monitor rather than a Volt/Amp monitor. Voltage is enough to monitor the battery, and its much easier on the wiring. The camera/transmitter that I used (Eachine TX05 from Banggood) was easy to setup, but the video quality is not the best, as you can see from my video. If I were to rebuild, I'd look for something that could transmit Hi def video. Maybe a battery operated home security camera, or something like a GoPro. I use the Microsoft "Camera" app on my desktop for the remote driving, and it has the ability to capture still shots and video. Since I only use this at home, I haven't explored using my smart phone for a monitor or recording device.
Look at the photos. I put down strips of plywood. I also have IR cameras and an old security DVR in my attic to monitor for unwanted critters looking to make a home.
you know, you could have just spend £100 and be done with a cheaper rc like an ftx ravine, but instead you went out of your way to build from the ground up a skid steering one, how fun
Thank you for posting this video of the crawlspace crawler. I was candidly at a loss trying to find a system for less than 2k or more. Today, I finished my shopping at Servocity & Amazon where I purchased about $990 of parts. I am going to build our Crawlspace Recon with my daughter as a homeschooling project as well. Ultimately, I am too old and broken to crawl around under my house but I need it done every so often. I appreciate you and the information you shared and hope to post a video of our finished product in a couple of weeks. Thank you!
Kyle, thank you for your comments. I'm glad I could pass a project along to someone else. I'd love to see what your finished crawler looks like. If you have any questions during your build, I'd be happy to help.
I had no idea I would enjoy looking around somebody's crawlspace, but here we are. Nice project!
Thanks for this idea. I have a very similar crawlspace - obviously the (old) house was built *without* maintenance in mind, but just to be sold as quickly as possible. I was young and inexperienced when I bought it. If I were staying here forever, I will definitely buy/build that robot. But we've decided to move, so I won't. But I just admire smart thinking!
"just for fun, not a real human skull" Just what somebody hiding a human skull would say :p
Kit looks great! Only changes I could see really improving anything is installing front and rear light bars that fit between the wheels front and rear of the chassis, and try and get the cameras a little lower/lower profile to get the overall height down, but this looks like it fit your purpose perfectly. Good job!
The light bar I already had was 12" so it had to go above the wheels. The camera antenna came up to about the same height. 6" clearance is fine for me, but a redesign could get it down to 4 or 5 inches with different lighting. The landscape LED floodlights, even with diffusers, almost "blinded" the cameras with hot spots of light. A shorter light bar would be perfect. Thanks for your comment.
Fantastic. It's a little elaborate and pricey for my limited needs today. But if you wired houses regularly, this seems like a real no brainer.
I find it crazy that someone hasn't made an affordable off the shelf drone like this that is either intended specifically for cable pulls or is versatile enough that people regularly use them for it.
You can buy flying drones that do most of this all day for a few hundred bucks. But when you search for something wheeled, it's either a toy that goes too fast and has novelty features or a DIY raspberry pi kit that becomes its own project.
I especially love the horror/adventure flick music in the background. That's exactly the feeling I have when I crawl under my house.
🖐️😮 💀
I've had several comments posted about being able to pull cable or home security wire. Sound like a great idea until that cable gets caught or snagged on something and then you have to go crawl to rescue your crawler. Would the crawler need to go find the cable and then drag it back? There'd have to be some sort of grabber with a catch and release mechanism.
I don't know how much "pull" my system has until the wheels slip in dirt. I imagine a drone has even less horizontal pull. I would also imagine that a drone would kick up a lot of dust as it flew through a narrow dirty area. So many things to consider.
Thanks for your comments, and don't give up. Half of the fun is building it.
@@jeffg8232
I wasn't referring to using a flying drone for wire pulling. Your wire puller is a wheeled drone. People are just accustomed to hearing the word drone used mostly in relation to flying devices.
I was just comparing how the same level of features and technology in flying drones is much more affordable and widely available than wheeled drones, even though it should be cheaper to buy or build a wheeled one.
The $600 in parts and who knows how much in labor that you spent would buy a pretty nice flying drone. It's crazy how those have such a huge market but nobody is producing something like your crawler at the same or lower price point.
Personally, I can think of way more uses for your crawler than I can think of for an aerial drone. People just like the idea of things that fly and then they get bored of them.
@@jeffg8232
Regarding getting stuck, I'm planning to attach a recovery rope to the $50 RC car i bought to attempt my sprinkler wire install. We will see. Right now I'm just practicing driving it to make sure I don't bang around too fast.
I guess I'll have to make videos too. 👍
as an rc/fpv hobbyist and installer for the cable company, I've considered building something like this. if you could build an apparatus to grab and pull wire and feed it into a hole, you might have a million dollar idea here.
Looks like the lunar surface down there !
I have a FS-i6s controlling a SR-08 tracked aluminum tank chassis. Bought on Amazon, German made I believe and very nice quality
Jeff this is awesome I am literally going through the same thing right now bellying under my house having to dig just to get enough room to go further I really could use one of these!!
You have my sympathy. I had to scrape a bunch of dirt from underneath one particular heater duct years ago to get to one far part of my house. Ugh!
Music from RUclips Audio Library:
Alpha Mission - Jimena Contreras
Aztec Empire - Jimena Contreras
Atlantis Rage - Jimena Contreras
Great guide.
Working on a build following yours, thank you.
Just couldn't get servo city or gobilda to swap motors out :( will have to buy them separately.
Sorry to hear that Servocity won't swap motors. I built my crawler in early 2020, and the kit was called "the prowler" , as opposed to the current "Recon" kit. Speed isn't needed in that rough area.
Parts List
Chassis/Wheels/Tires/Motors Kit “Recon” kit 60 RPM Motors Servocity.com
All other hardware was purchased separately:
Motor Speed Controller Roboclaw 2X7A set to differential (tank) mode
FLYSKY FS i6X RC controller + FS-iA10B 10 channel reciever
12V - 5V converter for camera power TOBSUN
Camera/transmitter 2 ea EACHINE TX05 FPV Camera from Banggood
Pan/Tilt servo assembly
RC servo for rear camera
RC switches for light bar and camera power selection
12” LED light bar from LED Wholesalers.com
Volt/Amp meter display
6 circuit terminal block
Power switch and fuse
12V Battery AGM Sealed lead acid 3 AH
U Bolts for lifting.
Based on the dimensions, it looks like you could replace the battery with a Dakota Lithium 12V 10A battery, or even possibly the 23A version. While I imagine the 1 hour run is generally sufficient, you could triple it.
Hammerhead Chassis Kit instead of the Recon, better for very uneven ground. But $100 more.
@@walterkarpynka8343 The Hammerhead kit is really cool. If I were doing this all over, I'd get one. I don't know if it was available when I was building it. Thanks for the suggestion.
Very cool project!
If I may comment on one detail: A lead-acid battery being drained at a 1/C rate (as you describe it lasting about an hour) may only deliver 60% of its rated capacity. Notice how the 10-hour rate is already .2Ah lower than the 20-hour rate, and that's a difference of only 150 milliamps, extrapolate that to a draw 10x higher.
That's ~2 amp-hours from a battery that weighs over 3 pounds... you don't have to go overboard with lithium, but even a 12V nimh battery with ~3000mah would double your runtime for ~$40 while taking up half the space and weight. (not that either is particularly crucial to your build.)
That's also not a deep-cycle battery, so it may begin losing capacity fairly quickly in this application.
I didn't think that far into it, but I did think it would make sense to just get or make an adapter to use whatever brand cordless tool batteries you already have.
Nice job. Just need a robot arm or two now.
Don't tempt me! I've got 3 unused RC channels. Left/Right, Up/Down, Grab/Release. Aarrrgh, the mind won't stop....
Cool. I got a basher because i wanted something with enough mass and a good suspension system to driver around FPV smoothly, but i couldn't use it indoors because the slowest it can go sends it zooming across the floor. This looks like a good build. I've actually been considering something similar but i wanted to use omniwheels and i haven't throught the built through yet, i'll probably copy your specs. Thanks :)
Might also finally be able to put my three way video switcher to use.
Thanks! I've been very happy with the slow speed that those 60 rpm motors have. Beginner's luck, I guess, this is my first try at an RC vehicle, although I had an excellent mentor who does trucks, drones, and fixed wing RC with a passion. I just switch power between front & back camera. Sort of crude, but I don't use the rear camera much, only if its in a spot that's too tight to turn.
That is pretty wild. I can see a kit you put up for sale with all the major work/programing done.
Someone else can kit this out if they wish. Sounds like work to me. I'm retired for 3 years now and I'm enjoying it. I finally had the time this year to learn to do RUclips videos.
Very cool. Now just need to mount a pair of pliers, phillips and flat head tool set on arms, and you have your repair bot for dirty places!
Great build!! Just need a robot arm to do maintenance work and you'd never need to go under ever again. There are some great kits out there too. There are some great lego builds I've seen for bots with 3 sets of wheels for more complex terrain.
robot arm could also mean a good game for kids. "hey kids pick up and move all the rocks back to the opening" then you can slowly make the terrain easier to work with
@@AlexSouthwell Maybe just a small snowplow blade to make crawler paths.
Hi Jeff, thank you very much for this. Could you post the wattage and voltage of the 12" light bar - there are so many types out there that it is hard to choose. Also what mW output power mW setting did you set on your TX05 transmitter. I read that 5mW is enough because the distance is not great.
I started on something similar in 2019 also with similar parts from servocity but never finished as it was overly ambitious. Never really could get it all to work. But after seeing your RUclips I am inspired to convert it to something similar to yours.
The lightbar is a 12" low profile aluminum LED rigid strip. Sold at LEDwholesalers.com. It can run on 10V to 30 V, 5Watts. I use these bars for under-cabinet lighting. Very reliable, although I eliminated the USB-like connector and soldered in a dedicated wire.
I'm working on something similar, since I want to run some cables. In addition I need a robot to drill a hole through a rather substantial wall.
I'm skinny, you can just hire me. Its gonna take a very heavy robot to drill a hole
@@jenkins1017 Lasers!
(Yeah, I know, they're not really powerful enough on such a small platform, fire risk, etc, etc, etc).
I've wanted to make something like this for my own crawl space...
This is exactly what I am looking for! I have tried multiple RC cars but they either got stuck or flipped over due to the uneven ground under the crawl space!
Those RC cars are too fast, as well. Go look at Servocity.com and look at their chassis kits. A great place to start. I used an earlier version of the "RECON" kit, with lower RPM motors. Lower speed, a lot more torque. My crawler has never got stuck or flipped, other than once getting tangled in some telephone wires.
@@jeffg8232 I have ordered the hammerhead + 12v control bundle as you suggest below. How did you ask them to send you the 60 rpm motors? Did you place the order and then left a message for that request?
@@yingxu7262 This was several years ago when I built it. I remembering getting on the phone with their customer service group, and requesting substituting the low RPM (60 RPM) motors, but I don't know if was before or after I had placed the order. I'd call ASAP. Or maybe you could exchange them after you get the kit. Let me know how the Hammerhead chassis works. That wasn't available when I built, but now I wish I had it.
What are the chances of getting a parts list?
Look at my comment at the top of the comment list. I have a full parts list.
Would you be open to making another one for sale? If so how much? I am looking to find something just like this for my jobs
RJ Thanks, but I'm not interested in building another one of these. Quite frankly, I'd go to ServoCity.com and look at their Hammerhead or Recon chassis kit with the 12V Radio Control bundle. That gives you chassis, motors, Motor controller, RC sender & receiver, and battery. All you'd have to do is add the light bar and cameras. Too Easy.
@@jeffg8232 I will do just that! Thank you!! One other question: what FPV camera unit do you recommend? I need something I can use for shoring and plumbing inspections under home... so will need something pretty clear with FPV and ability to record video and photos
RJ Several suggestions: The off-the-shelf kit from Servocity has 300 RPM motors. I had them substitute 60 RPM motors to give 5X torque. You don't need speed in a crawl space. I'd also forget the 2nd rear view camera. I rarely use it and it ties up 2 channels ( pan servo and camera power switch) on your receiver module. I'd also just use a simple voltage monitor rather than a Volt/Amp monitor. Voltage is enough to monitor the battery, and its much easier on the wiring. The camera/transmitter that I used (Eachine TX05 from Banggood) was easy to setup, but the video quality is not the best, as you can see from my video. If I were to rebuild, I'd look for something that could transmit Hi def video. Maybe a battery operated home security camera, or something like a GoPro. I use the Microsoft "Camera" app on my desktop for the remote driving, and it has the ability to capture still shots and video. Since I only use this at home, I haven't explored using my smart phone for a monitor or recording device.
What was build cost
It was about $600 back in 2020
Min 0:30 you shows a human head skull. Really?
Look at Min 6:53. All is explained. By the way, you are only the 3rd person to comment on this.
I was going to build something just like that.
Useless for my attic. I don't see how that's going to run on the rafters since there is no floor up there.
Look at the photos. I put down strips of plywood. I also have IR cameras and an old security DVR in my attic to monitor for unwanted critters looking to make a home.
you know, you could have just spend £100 and be done with a cheaper rc like an ftx ravine, but instead you went out of your way to build from the ground up a skid steering one, how fun