MachineGrid

I finally took apart the Spy Video which I got for a very good deal. I wanted to see if it would serve as a good platform for a robot and if the drive system could be upgraded. The most difficult part was taking apart the wheel hubs. The interesting part in the hubs design is that a better motor can be attached to it. The following sequence shows me taking the vehicle apart. Might come in handy for hardware hackers out there.

1. Various views of the vehicle.

2. Remove all the screws from the bottom of the vehicle, including the tracks.

3.Remove the top shell slowly. Don’t pull on it. You will need to disconnect the camera, antenna and mic headers to get it free.

4. Once the top shell is free, the circuit board and the drive system is visible. There is a bank of FETs for the motors. The board is very well labeled.

5. To take apart the drive system, loosen the screws around the orange box. Then unscrew the black tab keeping the wires from the orange box secure.

6.Taking apart the wheel hub is a chore, but possible with pliers, a small glass jar, some flame and some strength.First, remove the stopper from the shaft. Use pliers and strength:

Remove the large gear and everything between the gear and the stopper. Now again using pliers, remove the torque check gear:

Remove all the stuff after that including the orange cap with the three screws. Once the orange cap is removed, the black cover on the other end of the wheel can be removed:

Now for the interesting part. The wheel hub is dead set into the shaft and we need to remove it. Make sure you have a small jar, like below, ready. Choose one such that it’s mouth is small enough only for the shaft to go in. Ignore the gears on the shaft in the picture. You should be having just a blank shaft with the black hub and orange cap on.

Make sure you have the orange cap on. Now heat the shaft with a flame for around 30 seconds. This is just to soften the hub’s hold on the shaft. Holding it over the flame too long is going to melt the plastic.

Now while the shaft is still hot, place the shaft as shown below and hammer the other end down.

The shaft should come out after a few bangs. The wheel is now disassembled:

7. Why all this? I can now use a hub adapter and attach the ATV’s stock hub to a better motor.
The following hub adapter is from Lynxmotion. I will need to drill new holes to match the adapter.

If you are interested, check out your local Target store or you could try Amazon:

Thanks for looking. Any questions, ask in the comments.