3D Printing and Assembly of Motors
For this week, our group proceeded to the Making and Tinkering Lab to collect our 3D printed parts and begin the assembly of the motor drivers and the Arduino board.
Several limitations arose:
- Flaws in the design of the central portion
- Ineffectiveness of the wires used
We have found out that the 3D printer parts are not complementary to the EDF ducted fan. Therefore, we are trying out different designs for the central portion of the robot, which comprises the fan, wheels and brackets connecting the Servos and the fan.
Regarding the wires, crocodile clips were too big to connect the terminals on the motor driver to the power ports on the Arduino Motor Shield L293D. We will continue to use jumper wires (male to crocodile) for prototyping purposes, while soldering may be considered for the final product in order to avoid loose connections.
Some of the successes for this week:
- The functionality of the 4-wheel drivers
- Laptop-controlled Arduino UNO
The motor drivers were connected to the motor ports on the Arduino UNO using jumper wires (male to crocodile). By using the MotorTest codes in the Adafruit Motor Shield Library in Arduino CC, we managed to show that the wheels can rotate forward, backward and stop.
The input voltage for testing was 12V and the current was set to be 0.800A.
