Welcome to the Internet of Slot Cars

Slot car racing sets are tons of fun for kids, but as we grow up, they lose their appeal pretty quickly. Going round and round in circles eventually starts to feel repetitive and reminds us more of our daily commute than a thrilling race. But with some tech, everything is better. Redditor jazzcabbage321 just proved this in a big way by creating an internet-controlled slot car racing set equipped with FPV cameras that puts you in the driver’s seat.

To make this work, jazzcabbage321 wrote a script that captures data from a Twitch chat. When certain emojis are found, a message is sent to a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W microcontroller. The Pico uses this information to adjust the throttle level of the cars using an L298N motor driver. Infrared sensors were installed on each lane of the track to count laps and determine which car is in the lead.

Rather than using a traditional controller, people playing with these slot cars have to be quick to type the right emojis in a Twitch chat. If you get it just right and don’t go flying off the track around a sharp corner, you could win the best slot car game ever conceived. Don’t miss the video to see the driver’s seat view from these little cars, just like you imagined it when you were a child.