This week I finished up soldering the screw terminals, and I soldered wires for the servo motor and one stepper motor. I also drilled a hole in the box and mounted the button. Hopefully the new layout will be finished soon. However, I did face a setback this week due to the Raspberry Pi’s heating issue.
Continue reading Hot Raspberry Pi
Monthly Archives: April 2017
Almost There!!!!
Stanley is so close to being ready for the GPS and the real world! At the beginning of the week we realized he was having problems clearing walls and fixing that became our number one priority. We created two new counting variables that work very similarly to the at of the steering mechanism in the way that while it’s counting the motor stays still. Continue reading Almost There!!!!
The Box and the Switch
This week I drilled holes in the box and laid out all the components inside it. Everything fits well, but longer wires will be needed for the stepper and servo motors. I have also begun soldering screw terminals onto a separate PC board, which will make the connections from the motors to the Pi easier to change if necessary. In addition, I also decided it would be helpful to add a fan to keep the Raspberry Pi cool. It has been running especially hot lately, and putting it in a confined space will only make matters worse. Continue reading The Box and the Switch
A Couple Steps Forward and a Few Steps Back
There were a lot interesting and mixed feelings about this weeks progress. We moved the steering peg closer to the center of rotation so the steering would move twice as fast. This allowed it to keep up with the motor but we didn’t realize the headaches that would come with it. Continue reading A Couple Steps Forward and a Few Steps Back
Down to a halt
So this week………
I come back to school from the weekend to find that Stanley didn’t want to work. He would run the motor fine but the steering was doing absolutely nothing for us. Continue reading Down to a halt
P for progress
New parts and a New Stanley! In order to replace the h-bridges we were able to get our hand on a motor shield that can handle both the actuator and car motor at the same time. Along with that Mr. Bahn welded a new bolt closer to the center of rotation on the steering axel. This new leverage now allows the actuator to steer the car twice as fast, but at the priced of putting a good bit of stress on the cars frame. This faster steering allows us to not only up the speed of the car but slow down the motion sensors . Continue reading P for progress
It’s Getting There
This week I took apart the components for the robot and soldered the jumpers and a screw terminal to a PC board. The screw terminal will allow for greater flexibility of how long the wires to the button are, so it can be moved around easily if necessary. Mr. Bahn also found a box that will house the parts once we drill holes for the wires. Finally, I was about to test a potentiometer to be used as a difficulty knob, but I learned that the Raspberry Pi has no analog pins. So I began researching analog to digital converters, which will be necessary in order to receive input from the knob.
Progress?
The title of this post is a reference to bumps and bruises we had to deal with throughout the week. Mr. Bahn created a fantastic steering process for the car that couldn’t honestly work any better than it already has. The software for the car now includes a dummy variable “t” and a goal variable “g”, these two variables work together inside three if statements in order to determine the position of the actuator. Continue reading Progress?