My first big idea for a final project was building a functioning go kart. My main doubts in doing this would be some of the heavier mechanical parts.
How would I make tires? How heavy do the axles need to be? Do I need complex mechanical linkages for steering? If push comes to shove, I can buy some of these parts.
Sub-Idea 1: Program a potentiometer or some nicer sensor to pick up steering wheel location and convert that into servo actuation of the front wheels.
This would allow me to smooth out output with an algorithm, but may require powerful servos.
Sub-Idea 2: I likely don't want to deal with hydraulics for braking, but if I want to be safe/street-legal, I should have break lights, so some sort of
limit switch design on a hand brake. Depends how I design the brake, because the simpler the brake, the harder it will be to find room for a useful limit switch.
Sub-Idea 3: Try to keep it simple on the mechanics for acceleration. I may take inspiration from my go karts back at home when I was a kid and use some sort of lever (see below).
