Summary
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Build a compact 4WD spy car with XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense, camera, motors and phone streaming.
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Any smartphone includes live FPV video and a military-style web dashboard.
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Cheap and weekend friendly: about $30 using generic parts and 3D printed chassis.
ESP32 projects come in all shapes and sizes. Some are useful tools, some solve a problem with an existing product or solution, and some are just for fun. A microcontroller is a really powerful piece of kit, so you can often find it in all sorts of homemade projects that come across the web every week.
This time we check out a spy car you can make with XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense, a 3D printer, some motors and of course a live camera. Because what good is a spy car if you can’t see what it sees via live streaming?
You can also make this cool ESP32 spy car at home
It’s not exactly stealth, but it’s a lot of fun
As seen Hackster.iothis cool little project comes to us via Simple Circuits on YouTube. You can check out how it’s made in the video above, but at its core, it’s a small RC car with a few simple components that an expert would have or know where to get really cheap. In fact, if you were to buy all the bits yourself, Simple Circuits estimates that the total should cost around $30, which is a solid price.
Here’s how Simple Circuits describes the project:
A compact 4WD exploration robot built around the XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense. It streams live video to any smartphone, has tactical white LEDs, 4 individually controlled N20 engines, real-time CPU temperature and a military-style web dashboard. Perfect for FPV exploration, spy themed projects or RC fun.
After setting it up, you can drive the RC car and see everything through its camera through your smartphone. And while it’s probably not going to win any awards for being the world’s most stealthy device, it’s still a nice little weekend project.
