Mod Part 1

Conversion wiring diagram

Pin	Item	from	To	color	other
	Arduino	5V pin	Breadboard	Red	5V Power Rail
	Arduino	GND	Breadboard	Black	GND Rail
PWM 7	servomotor	Servo	Arduino	white	Steering communication
	servomotor	Servo GND	Breadboard GND Rail	Black	GND
	servomotor	Servo Power	Breadboard Power Rail	Red	5V.
Digital 30	H-bridge	ENA	Arduino	Blue	Enables motor controller
Digital 52	H-bridge	IN1	Arduino	Orange	Spins dc motor one way
Digital 53	H-bridge	IN2	Arduino	Green	Spins dc motor opposite way
	H-bridge	MOT DC	Battery +	Red	(6-35)V
	H-bridge	MOT DC	Battery -	Black	GND
	H-bridge	MOT 1 (+)	car	Red	Power
	H-bridge	MOT 1 (-)	car	Black	GND
	H-bridge	5V-Power	Breadboard  5V Power Rail	Red	Power
	H-bridge	GND	Breadboard GND Rail	Black	GND

Making Servo ext. cable:

1.      Snip male end off

2.      Separate the 3 cables (B,R,W)

3.      Strip 3 wire ends

4.      Twist bare wire together

5.      Place 1 peace of heat shrink on each set of cables

6.      Dip wire ends in flux

7.      Tint all 6 wire ends

8.      Solder 3 connections servo ext cable to other wire

9.      Place heat shrink over connection

10.   Melt heat shrink

Findings:

·        Car was responding to embedded program as expected.

·        H-bridge: 

o   Mot DC plug can handle 6-35v

§  Battery wire melted instantly with 22gage. It had 10v coming from battery connected

§  Made new cable 18 gage, work beautifully

o   Heat sink gets extremely hot when powered on (don’t touch)

DC Motor code

/*      digitalWrite(52, HIGH); //forward yellow light on H-bridge
          digitalWrite(53, LOW);
*/

/*      digitalWrite(52, LOW);  //reverse red light on H-bridge
          digitalWrite(53, HIGH);
*/

Accomplishments of the day:

·        Car mods

o   Servomotor ext cable made

o   Added 2 additional cables from DC motor (+,-)  on car; for micro controller to provided power to DC motor through H-bridge

o   H-Bridge extra battery connector made 18gage with red connector ends

·        Steering   

o   Tested servo code

§  rotate wheels from 0-180 degree in increments of 20 degree

·        Program Arduino to drive the car in a circle

o   front wheels set to 20 degrees and constant power in forward motion

Mod still not done

o   We need to figure out a way to secure the three components on the car:

o    Arduino,

o   Breadboard

o   H-bridge

o   Sensors

Naseem soldering

cables connecting Arduino to H-bridge (chart above for color coding)

Nathan connecting cables to H-bridge

H-bridge cable after first test

gage of wire to small.

Video of test car going around in a circle at constant speed.

wheels are set  20degree to the left

pictures

Preliminary Sensor Report

Today we looked into what type of sensors we could use.  We were mostly looking at sensors for navigation purposes.  The types of sensors we are interested in are ping sensors, GPS sensors, accelerometers, and possible light/color sensors.

This link gave us a list of different sensors we could use for the arduino board: http://arduino.cc/playground/Main/InterfacingWithHardware

It has different categories of sensors, and under each category is a list of different parts along with tutorials and helpful links for some of the parts.

This link has more information on some of the sensors we were looking at (accelerometers and IMUs)
http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/167

We also have some parallax sensors here at hood that we will also look into.

This is the sensor list we have compiled so far:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9M9RSGiYa3KMWExYTcwYjgtM2FkMi00ZGJjLWE1MDAtOGQ4YTQ4M2IyMDMz

Removing body from chassis

1.     remove all four wheels

a.     center of wheel has a screw

2.     remove 4 screws from front chassis bracket connecting it to body

3.     remove drivetrain cover (4 screws)

a.     rear suspension lifts up

b.     cylinder supporter piece comes out of drivetrain baracket

c.      rear shocks separate from rear drivetrain and chassis

4.     remove rear 2 screws from the bracket connecting the chassis to the body

5.     unplug electrical cable from chassis to circuit board beneath body that controls car lights

6.     rebuild drive train

a.     place springs in suspension and compress (chassis and rear drivetrain)

b.     place cylinder supporter piece through drivetrain bracket

c.      connect drivetrain to chassis

d.     tighten  drivetrain cover with 4 screws


After looking at the servomotor (last image) it appears to cheaply made and a potential problem as we will have issues later on assigning it specific degrees for steering left or right. i will need to dissemble the entire chassis to get into the servomotor cabling.