Pinewood Derby KITT with Remote-Controlled Lights and Sounds

Last year my son suggested I build a KITT Pinewood Derby Car based on the 1980s TV series, and I just finished it last night. Almost all of the magic is Brickstuff products, so I thought I'd show it off a bit.

Two years ago I found a guy on Etsy that can CNC any vehicle to Pinewood Derby-spec. He's done a couple of classic Mustangs and an old MG for me that were incredible, so I asked for a KITT on April 10. On October 30, I got the notification that the car was ready. The body is 7" long, 2 3/4" wide, and weighed 2.665 oz. (The limit is 5.0 oz.)

I manually cut out the space for the LED scanner and found a set of KITT micro LEDs from Evan Designs. I went with the 3V version and had to remove lights 1 and 6 due to space.

Using a Brickstuff DIY cable, I plugged the lights into Port 1 of the Brickstuff TRUNK11 lighting effect controller.

Ports 2-4 of the effect controller control sounds loaded onto the Brickstuff Intelligent Sound Module with Speaker. Port 2 is the scanner sound effect, Port 3 is KITT saying "All systems go,, Michael," and Port 4 is KITT saying, "It must be a problem in calibration!"

Everything is powered by a 3.7V 400mAh Lithium Ion Polymer Battery from Adafruit, which requires the Brickstuff LiPo Battery Power Supply.

The wheels are lathed, smooth, domed, and graphite-coated, and I used a silver paint pen to paint the trim to mimic KITT's iconic wheels.

The axles are graphite-coated titanium. I used a black paint pen to paint the heads black.

It's 4.675 oz as it sits today. I'll adjust the weight to exactly 5.0 oz on raceday, which is March 30.

Here's my parts list:

Evan Designs KITT LEDs https://evandesigns.com/products/knight-rider-light-circuit?variant=12394475552816

Brickstuff DIY Cables https://www.brickstuff.com/store/p18/diy-jst-cables-for-arduino.html

Brickstuff 4-Channel RF Remote with Effect Controller https://www.brickstuff.com/store/p203/TRUNK11-RF.html

Brickstuff Intelligent Sound Module with Speaker https://www.brickstuff.com/store/p205/TRUNK90.html

Brickstuff LiPo Battery Power Supply with Switch https://www.brickstuff.com/store/p137/lipo-5v-power-supply.html

3.7V 400mAh Lithium Ion Polymer Battery https://www.adafruit.com/product/3898

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  • I'm speechless-- just absolutely amazing and well done!  I'm also a little bit humbled by how far Pinewood Derby tech has some since my Cub Scout days. :-)

    Thank you for sharing the details of your work, and once again, bravo!

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    • Josh
    • BCFR, BCEMS, CEFR, NMCSO
    • Josh
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    This is great!

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