9 March

Team:

With all our parts finally in house, the team is poised to make good progress the upcoming work week. Sam now has consistent lighting and can zero in on the correct HSV values we need to properly scan the cube. Lily has the foundation set for her solver. JT is able to get the basics of the stepper motors working. With this in mind, there are no new standout risks at this point in time. Lily’s solver may take longer than expected, but that component isn’t time sensitive because it doesn’t block Sam or JT. The team also has the Two-Phase algorithm to use in the meantime while Lily continues to work on her Beginner’s Method algorithm. We were concerned with breaking or burning something with our motors, but after JT successfully completed a configuration we’ve become more confident. No changes were made to our design or schedule.

JT:

This week, I had two primary focuses. Completing the design document and getting one stepper motor driver configuration working. For the design document, I wrote a large bulk of the sections and organized the necessary pictures. I also formatted the paper after all the appropriate sections and figures were finished.

In lab, I was finally able to get one motor turning. After Lily soldered one of the stepper motor drivers for me, I was able to start on a single motor configuration. All the appropriate parts finally came in, mainly the new 24V 5A power supply. I followed the circuit schematic we used for our design review and wrote a basic Arduino sketch to get the motors turning in both directions with varying steps. It was important to monitor the reference voltage on the drivers to ensure I was limiting the current being provided to the motors. With this milestone completed, I believe I’m on track to get all six configurations done soon. The main focus is to ensure that I don’t burnout the Arduino or any of the motors. Next week is Spring Break, but after I hope to finish with at least three motors and ideally have them be able to respond to key/button presses.

Lily:

This week, the last of our shipments came in so JT and I started working on the hardware portion of our project. I soldered pins onto 5-6 of the motor drivers (unfortunately, some were upside down…) since we bought the motor drivers that were not pre-assembled/did not have pre-soldered pins and tested a few to ensure that the solder joints were sturdy and volcano-shaped. In addition, I wanted to make sure I didn’t damage any of the motor drivers.

Furthermore, I created a preliminary circuit design for our power circuit, mapping out each driver-motor setup in parallel to the Arduino/microcontroller and the 24V 5A power supply. I will be consulting with others (within and outside of Cubr) to assess issues that may arise. JT and I did do quick research back when we were ordering parts, and I believe that the current + voltage (so, power) from the power supply will fall within the motor driver and motor current + voltage (power) ratings. We will resume design deliberations after Spring Break.

On the software side, I completed the definitions for the 18 types of rotation moves and am working on writing the actual algorithms for the Beginner’s Method. This portion seems a little slow particularly because it’s required a lot more design and forethought than I had anticipated. However, this does not put us behind schedule as the integration with the actual hardware will come in the next few weeks and will not be a blocking problem. After Spring Break, I will start integrating the Two-Phase algorithm (or use existing solvers) to acquire a 20-move solution string for the firmware-hardware interfacing with the Arduino.

Sam:

This week, all our parts came in. Specifically, the soft lighting box and the webcam. I configured the cube state detection to use the external webcam. Having the softbox allowed me to finalize the HSV values and standardize the lighting. The project is now making steady progress and we are not blocked on any major components. As far as the design document, I wrote a significant amount about the high and low level design along with all the cube state detection portions of the document.

I also worked on the communication between the Arduino and the Mac. I made slower progress than expected on this portion but nothing blocking. I am still trying to use a Makefile to communicate the solution string from the Mac to the Arduino. This was a slower week that led into spring break. After this break, I aim to finish this portion and go on to help JT with the hardware components and start work on the housing for the robot and the coupling arms that will attach the cube to the motors. We are making good progress and we are on track. Go Cubr.