Update before presentation

So the time has come for the course to end, and unfortunately we have some hurdles before completing this project. The first is that we were on the tail end of submitting our parts for the laser cutter and 3D printer, so we don't have our parts to build the car yet. Although this is a setback, we still haven't seen success in the RF code we've been working on. We've received some help from the community on the Arduino forum, which is slowly helping us along, but its also adding complexity to our code which isn't making this come together any faster. Below are images of what our individual parts should look like, and this blog will continue to be updated until the car is completed. Until next time...

Car Base

Main Drive Gear

Steering Arm

Steering Rack Gear

Steering Rack

Super Awesome Wheel

Oh the code..........

Since we are waiting on parts from the 3D printer, its time to finally get the code in order. We made some strides today with a new library utilizing the RF transmitter along with some help from Professor Sullivan, but there are still some serious issues. The code below takes the L/R and U/D joystick inputs and mashes them together using one number (xPos*10000+yPos). The problem here is that when xPos goes to 0, we are left with a string just containing the yPos. We would like to find a way to use 0's as place holders for the unused x values, but we still have to figure out how to split the number into two variables on the receiving end.
This is what the receiving data looks like:

Received 5070504 / 24bit Protocol: 1
Received 5070504 / 24bit Protocol: 1
Received 504 / 24bit Protocol: 1
Received 504 / 24bit Protocol: 1
Received 504 / 24bit Protocol: 1
Received 504 / 24bit Protocol: 1
Received 10537 / 24bit Protocol: 1
Received 10537 / 24bit Protocol: 1
Received 10537 / 24bit Protocol: 1
Received 10537 / 24bit Protocol: 1
Received 5070976 / 24bit Protocol: 1
Received 5070976 / 24bit Protocol: 1

Until next time......

Converting values for virtual wire

Today we worked on the code so we can send a simple 2 digit number to be used in controlling the motor and servo.

Video

RF codes

The team met and worked on sending and receiving raw data. We tried different codes but finally came up with the code posted below that transmits the raw data from the joystick to the receiver board.

Here's the transmitting code



Here's the receiving code

Follow up to the previous post

In this video, the servo motor is working properly, but the drive motor is not.  We've gone through the code and have corrected a few errors, but haven't had time to test it.  Update on the RF control tomorrow!!

Testing out joystick control

This week we started to get the coding together for both the 2 axis joystick and the rf control.  This is a work in progress, and code with video will be posted shortly. 

Introduction to SolidWorks and Arduino

As an introduction to the world of arduino and rapid prototyping, the students of 22.201 were tasked with creating a design that can be built using 3D printing technology and controlled using at least one arduino board.  Team 2 Fast is stepping up to the challenge with designing a radio controlled car, who's design is depicted below.

 

Team 2 Fast consists of:

• Michael Gager
• Daniel Miller
• Alaina Schiano

Updates to this blog will be made regularly showing changes in design, parts created, and code used to control the car.

 

Credit to the initial prototype goes to Michael Gager