As Yong En and Yan Ying were involved in senior’s camp for their orientation, Dini was left alone with the electronics.

With help from other groups who were also using SD card readers, we managed to finally sort out the situation with the SD card module. Turns out connecting it to the ICSP port was the solution. Yes, as simple as just rearranging our connections…

Image from https://www.teachmemicro.com/arduino-nano-pinout-diagram/

FINALLY the speakers played the sounds we wanted it to. Obviously we still had the problem of the speakers being too soft because where’s the fun in everything working at once, right? Regardless, this was still a step forward, and the volume adjustments can come later.

Other than electronics, we also needed to design and print a few parts to assemble everything together. First and most important, we finally finalised the dimensions for our launcher (pictured below).

In particular, we needed to print the vertical base plate holding the servo and DC motor. We needed to ensure that not only do the electronic components fit, but we also had to ensure that the wheel and DC motor holders are spaced sufficiently far apart for the ball to be lightly ‘squished’. This distance was mostly figured out using some trial and error on a scrap piece of cardboard.

Image from https://www.vexforum.com/t/physics-of-the-flywheel-launcher/29357

We also needed to print the ramp from which the ball will be launched. We needed some more trial and error with the dimensions and mechanism to ensure that the movement of the servo motor will be translated to the movement of the ramp.

Aside from our launcher module, we also needed to print connector parts so that we could attach a lever to the angle potentiometer. With all these customised parts, we were finally able to put together the control panel as modelled below.