Created November 2, 2015

Second Project, Week Two: Working Design

BeginnerShowcase (no instructions)12

Story

It moves!

The first week, we focused on chassis designs so this week was all about getting the circuitry to work with a polished chassis.

After brainstorming ideas last week, I decided to go with a three-wheel design and design a remote with four essential functions: forward, back, left, and right.

The Process

I first wired a quick circuit that powered the motors so that I could put together a cardboard prototype of my design and test it.

1 / 2

I just wanted to make sure the 3-wheel design would run with the weight of arduino, battery pack, and motor controller and also used this cardboard prototype to gauge my measurements to cut out my real chassis on acrylic. Here's a little video of my test run. (There's no code or switched involved at all for this one)

Now that I had a cardboard prototype that could move forward, I designed my AI file to cut out.

It seemed like the easiest way to keep my motors in place would be using zip ties so I positioned holes throughout the design so I could thread them through.

After laser cutting my chassis, however, I realized a lot of my measurements were off and it would be a lot more difficult than I anticipated to hold my arduino, battery pack, and motor control in place cleanly. This is going to be my biggest focus other than soldering before I submit my final project. Right now everything is held in place with rubber bands and I know that's terrible but its the best I could do given the time I had left.

Putting together the circuitry was mainly about mapping button presses to events. I split my code into 4 if else statements and wired my switches accordingly to the motor controller and arduino.

The wires are a little short for a remote control, but I figure that's something I'll fix when I use the prototyping shield. Here's a little demo of what I worked on for the past two weeks :)

Conclusion

The most important thing I've probably learned in this class is that fabricating your designs is a lot more difficult than it seems; it's a deeply iterative process. I cant wait to put everything together for next week and fix all the flaws I found this time around! I'm hoping that once the circuit is soldered and I fix my chassis, the final vehicle will be pretty awesome.

Schematics

Code

Untitled file

int Forward = 4;   
int Left = 5;   
int Right = 6; 
int Back = 7; 

int control1 = 10;
int control2 = 11;
int control3 = 12;
int control4 = 13;
  
int goForward = 0;     
int goLeft = 0; 
int goBack = 0;
int goRight = 0;

void setup() {
  pinMode(Forward, INPUT);    
  pinMode(Left, INPUT);
  pinMode(Right, INPUT);
  pinMode(Back, INPUT);

  pinMode(control1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(control2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(control3, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(control4, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  //Read orientation values
  goForward = digitalRead(Forward);  
  goLeft = digitalRead(Left);
  goBack = digitalRead(Back);
  goRight = digitalRead(Right);
 
  //Write based on switch input
  if (goForward == LOW) { 
      digitalWrite(control1, HIGH);
      digitalWrite(control2, LOW); 
      digitalWrite(control3, HIGH);
      digitalWrite(control4, LOW);
  } else if (goLeft == LOW) { 
      digitalWrite(control1, LOW);
      digitalWrite(control2, HIGH); 
      digitalWrite(control3, HIGH);
      digitalWrite(control4, LOW);
  } else if (goBack == LOW) { 
      digitalWrite(control1, LOW);
      digitalWrite(control2, HIGH);
      digitalWrite(control3, LOW);
      digitalWrite(control4, HIGH); 
  } else if (goRight == LOW) { 
      digitalWrite(control1, HIGH);
      digitalWrite(control2, LOW); 
      digitalWrite(control3, LOW);
      digitalWrite(control4, HIGH);
  } else { //If no switch is pressed
      digitalWrite(control1, LOW);
      digitalWrite(control2, LOW);
      digitalWrite(control3, LOW);
      digitalWrite(control4, LOW);
  }

}

Credits

Dipsikha Halder

9 projects • 1 follower

Second Project, Week Two: Working Design

Story

It moves!

The Process

Conclusion

Custom parts and enclosures

aifile.png

Schematics

Vehicle Circuitry

Code

Untitled file

Credits

Dipsikha Halder

Comments

Embed the widget on your own site

Second Project, Week Two: Working Design

Second Project, Week Two: Working Design

Story

It moves!

The Process

Conclusion

Custom parts and enclosures

aifile.png

Schematics

Vehicle Circuitry

Code

Untitled file

Credits

Dipsikha Halder

Comments