This week I finally had the opportunity to further continue working out hardware kinks. JP and I linked up to integrate the Arduino code with his ellipse detection. I sent him the code necessary to communicate with the Arduino over USB and we ran preliminary tests where we were able to successfully detect a cup then rotate to face the target cup. One tweak we are making is to always rotate back to the start/0 degree position after we launch so that we don’t have to keep track of the overall angle between shots, and instead only have to worry about that one shot at a time. It also means that we don’t have to retain a persistent serial connection with the Arduino and can initiate a new connection every time we are ready to run the launch code.
Logan Status Report (4/3)
This week I finally got my hands on a lot of the hardware I needed. I finished soldering the stepper control board and did preliminary testing to make sure it worked. After I verified it was all working correctly and could microstep in both directions I started testing the code I wrote for going to an angle. It took a little bit of tweaking, but it now is at the point where I can send an angle over serial (also a velocity but that doesn’t do anything yet), and it will turn to the closest angle it can to that. I minimize the difference by tracking the global angle that it arrived at after each step, so that it doesn’t always assume that it turns to the exact angle given by the user.
Video of stepper testing:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XPMc-EM1ohryy9YpaJJoyoN1blSXRkv9/view?usp=sharing
The DC Motor also arrived today so I’m excited to get that test rig set up as well.
Logan Status Report 3/27
This week JP and I modeled and fabricated the external housing for the robot in TechSpark. It took a little bit longer than we expected to get familiar with the laser cutter and we ended up making a few small mistakes but came out of it with all 6 sides cut, including the mount on the rear for the tablet. As far as electronics, the stepper motor and the drivers arrived on Thursday. I am still awaiting the DC motor delivery however. I was able to begin soldering the control board for the stepper motor and put together a test setup with my Arduino and the motor along with some example code to check everything is working. I did make a small mistake soldering though, and will have to correct it in TechSpark on Sunday because I don’t have a desoldering tool. The board works though: a small LED in the corner glows when I turn the motor.
Stepper Motor with control board:
I also made a lot of progress on the 3D model and assembly. After the DC motor gets here and I can get the dimensions on that I can add that to the upper mount and get it printed. The launcher is likely the only thing we will print, the outer circle we can just cut out of acrylic and the bottom we can do the same. Pictured is the main launcher assembly where the balls will roll in and be launched by the motor spinning at the bottom.
My biggest blocker right now is still not having the DC motor. I’ve been waiting over a week for that part now and I’m wondering if the best option would be to just drive to a hardware store to buy one temporarily or check if there is one in inventory I can use.