Saturday, January 3 – Kick-Off!
We finally got the compressor working after Ms. Owens figured out that the PWM cable was plugged in the wrong way (it is labeled and we did not match it up). We also tried plugging in the camera and programming it using the example code. It worked as it was able to only detect the color we set it to.

Sunday, January 4
The first day of the season is strategy day and while we were all discussing plans for the robot, a few electrical points came up. One thing was to use accelerometers to measure acceleration. Using an encoder would not be much help as it is used to count number of rotations (rpm) but since there are numerous wheel slips this year, it would be inaccurate (the wheel could be spinning and the robot would not be moving). The camera also came up at one point. We should try to program it to detect the bright green or bright pink color on the trailer so we would not have to aim and shoot every moon rock or cell in by manually adjusting it.

We figured out where to position four victors and mounted two of them (on the corner of the board, leaving room for the remaining two). The same was done for the relays, and two were also mounted. We also programmed the relay to respond according to the joystick button being pressed. The solenoid was wired up and also turned on.

Monday, January 5
We continued trying to program the items on our list. The servo continually would not work, even with the example code. Same problem occurred with the victor speed controllers.

We were able to connect the board with most of the parts onto the kitbot chassis. After wires were crimped, Jonathan and I competed in a mini race to connect the jaguar speed controllers with the two motors. We also had to tie strap the wires down and I learned that wrapping the wires up in circles, rather than in a ribbon-like method, makes it less likely for the wires to break.

It was then programmed with an arcade drive so that Sam and I could test drive it with the new joysticks.

Tuesday, January 6
This day was a day for trouble shooting and so we tested the wires to check if they worked. While we thought a few wires did not work, when we tested them with the DMM, we found they were functional. However, the problem was in the victors itself. We switched the two victors that were mounted on the board with other ones and found that the program worked. The servo, however, did not work even though we tested different servos (new and old ones) and positions on the digital sidecar.

To use the servo, a jumper was required to be plugged in next to the servo’s PWM port. The jumper enables 6V on the digital sidecar. Something they noticed was that the 6V light did not light up on the digital sidecar, meaning the jumper/servo was not working. In fact, when the jumper was on, even the 5V light on the digital sidecar did not light up. Even after testing the replacement digital sidecar, nothing changed. We had to read up on this for homework.

Wednesday, January 7
Ms. Owens posted a thread on Chief Delphi asking about our digital sidecar problem. Someone responded saying we might have crimped the insulation on the wire (connecting to the power distribution board) rather than the wires itself (this happens when we press it in too far or did not strip enough wire). Checking it, she found out that this was indeed the problem. Our task for the day was to read up on the electrical and programming manuals and prepare for the test on Thursday.

As review, I learned about wiring, such as stripping wire and using the wago tool on the power distribution board. I also took note of the different wire gauge and crimps. For the smaller ports, we should strip off about 1/3 of an inch, or about 7 mm. For the larger ports (used for speed controllers), we should strip off about ½ of an inch, or about 12 mm.

Overall
These last few days have been filled with minor mistakes that could have been prevented. Everyone needs to read up on the manuals and become acquainted with the equipment. Hopefully the rest of the week will be better as we all learn more about programming, wiring, and the electrical components in general.

Disclaimer: These are actual student posts done by students and not paid actors. We make no claims or guarantees that the information contained herewith is 100% accurate or free of grammatical/spelling errors (English is not the first language for many of our members). You have been warned.