ELEC 10 02/12/14 last day

Last:

-Present about our projects
- My main part was coding

This is a sample of our program we used. Our program consisted of simple functions that made it go forward, backwards, right/left, detect a line, and even a flame. The program relied on timing and sensors. Timing was used to make the robot move forward, going to the center,and turning 90 degrees right and left. Wall sensors were used to avoid the walls, line sensors are used to make the robot know where it is.Flame sensor was used find the candle flame. 

This is a flowchart off what our program does when it starts. Over all the presentation was a success and a learning experience. I look forward to learn more in the future. 

Goodbye Elec 10 is was fun 

- Nathan Salta  

   

ELEC 10 01/30/14 edited

Arduino shield

The green board is a top our arduino board make it easier to plug in different components such as line, fire, motors

Elec 10 1/29/14 edited

This is the setup for the line sensor the farther away from the line the higher the read ( in arduino)the closer the smaller the number   Objective complete: fire sensor and line sensor   line sensor sees black line and fire sensor sees candle flame

Elec 10 2/08/14 Competition day

Competition day Saturday Arrived to Cal state Long Beach Engineering Department around 11:30. 

- Competition Name: Nathan squared ( partner and I ) 

- Before competition: fixed turning which was slightly off 

- Cued robot to practice the course. It was successful came up a little short in the beginning moving forward. Needed more power to realign itself on the wall. 

1:15 competition start. 

-reprogrammed initial driving forward to center.

1:30

- Our turn comes up the Nathan squared made an error by coming up short initial drive to center

- Did not finish

Fixes before second try: 

- charged battery

- fixed turning a little more

-Unplugged battery 

about 2:00 

- our second try came the inital forward was fixed but turn was off. 

-Did not finish 

- IMPORTANT NOTES:

- Competition if you unplug battery run it once or twice to test if it works properly. We plugged in the battery when we went into our second try and it didn't perform correctly. 

• After pushing the reset the robot ran correctly ( after turn)

-  Important to manage time correctly

• Our robot was solid, but programming took sometime ( have time anything begin to fail)   

- Things I would change:

• Not relying on encoders; they failed on Friday and had to do timing and wall sensor ( almost  rework whole program )
• Making the robot actually finish, then making it go faster
• More time working in the maze
• Another Student came up with the idea of bumpers switches one for each room. Depending on which room  the flame was in, push that bumper. Although, would ruin the spirit it was out of the box thinking.
• Being able to use our fan. A fan so powerful the robot began roll backwards. 
• Asking for help when something fails: easy way to help solve problems and waste less time.
•  Time management: programming and robot 
• Being prepared for any mishaps 

Final Thoughts

- This is my first time programming and enjoyed the problem solving aspect of the competition. There are things I would change which were previously mention. I enjoyed the experience and turmoil, with that old say  "you learn more from your mistakes than from your successes."  Elec 10 Winter 2014 

-Nathan Salta      

Elec 10 02/07/14

Waiting to go through the course 

After yesterdays fire the encoders began to malfunction and the turning and driving forward resulted in timing. Crunch time two hours before the end of the day three rooms out of four were searched.  

Elec 10 02/06/14

Our Fire is a brushless motor attached to a computer fan grill  

The Fan was so powerful the robot started to move back
Note: never uses a small wire for power it can not handle the current  which in turn fried the arduino shield power to ground

Elec 10 02/04/14

The main part of the day was coding and wire management