Clean way to received signals from the RCC-controller on the Arduino

rccHack.ino

/*

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2014 Lennart Hildebrandt aka lennerd (https://github.com/lennerd)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of
this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in
the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to
use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of
the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,
subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER
IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

See also: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php

*/

const int rccRightPin = A2;
const int rccLeftPin = A3;
const int rccForwardPin = A0;
const int rccBackwardPin = A1;

boolean rccRightStatus = false;
boolean rccLeftStatus = false;
boolean rccForwardStatus = false;
boolean rccBackwardStatus = false;

void setup() {/*
  //Serial.begin(9600);
  
  pinMode(rccRightPin, INPUT);
  pinMode(rccLeftPin, INPUT);
  pinMode(rccForwardPin, INPUT);
  pinMode(rccBackwardPin, INPUT);
  
  analogReference(EXTERNAL);
}

void loop() {
  //Serial.println(digitalRead(rccRightPin));
  //Serial.println(digitalRead(rccLeftPin));
  //Serial.println(analogRead(rccForwardPin));
  //Serial.println(analogRead(rccBackwardPin));
  
  /*
   * The following variables are holding true or false,
   * so we can use them later on in some if(...) { ... } statements
   */
  rccRightStatus = digitalRead(rccRightPin) == LOW; // LOW means ACTIVE, turn right
  rccLeftStatus = digitalRead(rccLeftPin) == LOW; // LOW means ACTIVE, turn left
  rccForwardStatus = analogRead(rccForwardPin) < 50; // Analog input value under 50 means ACTIVE, drive forward
  rccBackwardStatus = analogRead(rccBackwardPin) < 50; // Analog input value under 50 means ACTIVE, drive backward
  
  /*
   * Now you can use these variables to control your outputs ... for example:
   */
  if (rccForwardStatus || rccBackwardStatus) {
    // RCC motor is running forward or backward
  }
  
  if (rccRightStatus || rccLeftStatus) {
    // RCC magnets are turning the car right or left
  }
}

For this Hack we used the Amewi 22046 - Mini Racing Buggy Pegasus M:
http://www.amazon.de/dp/B002NF5FZ0