Engineering Expo

Final Assembly at Expo

12/10/14-12/11/14

12/12/14

Had a good deal of laser cut parts made and assembled the front of the body.

12/11/14
Had the rest of the parts cut, tomorrow we will need to get our shaft couplings machined and then we will be ready for the expo.

Code:
I went home and updated the code, We were using an old library for the motor shield that was causing problems, I downloaded the new library and fixed the code. I also created a low power variant of the code, which runs a motor as a slower RPM.Allowing better demonstration of the direction the motors are spinning, plus it allows us to run off of power from the computer as opposed to the battery which is estimated to only last 1.5 hours.

Motor Tests

Tested DC motor in water.
          Motor works while submerged in water but not recommended because lubricant escapes motor and water is very corrosive to materials in motor.

Motor shield can power only 2 of the four motors required. In order to receive more power to the other motors and possibly some other electrical components an additional external power source is needed. 

Ordered an 11v battery pack for the power supply. Should receive battery by 12/5

Materials(Lowes Trip)

Lowes Trip

• 1, 3 inch diameter PVC pipe ( raw piece is 2 feet long)

• 2, 1 inch diameter PVC pipe (raw piece is 2 feet long)

• 4, 1 inch couplings

 

• 1, 3 inch coupling 

• 5, 3/8 tubing adapter

• 12, 1/4 inch rubber washers

• 4 feet of clear 1/4 inch tubing 

Bill Of Parts

Design Idea

November 15, Mike, Anna, and Patrick Today we picked our design for our sub after going through the pros and cons of several ideas. We decided on a 5-tube system with four motors placed in a box pattern around the main body. Tomorrow we will go to town to buy supplies and parts for the sub.

Download Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qg0kbvwlyubmr4o/SubeTube.zip?dl=0

Input Via Xbox Controller

We did some research on input via an xbox controller and found a simple digital input and a much more complex analog style input. I did the simple digital input(for now at least). The method uses a program called xpadder which emulates a keyboard using a controller. From there a program was adapted using processing, to take keyboard input and send it over serial to the arduino. Next I did some work on our control sketch and tested this by turning an led on and off with one of the joysticks. The guide used can be found in this link http://www.instructables.com/id/Control-Arduino-functions-with-a-USB-controller-n/#step1.

Processor Code:

Arduino Code:

Screenshot of xpadder setup:

- Mike

Meeting 3

November 11, 2014

Mike, Anna, Pat


We decided on our project design - to build an RC Submarine out of PVC pipe controlled by a reprogrammed wired xbox controller. We will be measuring and weighing the parts to decide on the size of the body we will build. We currently have most of the electronics needed.

Meeting 2: Anna, Mike

Did some brainstorming for possible ideas came up with a list of:
Sub
Balloon Killing Robot(laser turret hunts balloons)
Solar powered robot(seeks out light)
CNC
Rocket
Automatic door opener(opens when a certain code is knocked)

Some interesting aurduino projects

Meeting 1: Mike, Paddy, Anna

We had our first meeting on 11/4. From this we have decided our next meeting will be on 11/6 and will consist of brainstorming.