Winter Hardware Wonderland Day 10 #hardware-party
THE. FINAL. DAY.
Wow! Winter Hardware Wonderland is over. Time really flies, doesn't it? Great job to all you focused ones! To those who did not finish: don't worry, we can keep going! And to those who did, you can keep UPGRADING! For my project, A.L.F.R.E.D., he is not quite finished yet. I'm getting closer! I'm in the middle of programming the line tracking feature so A.L.F.R.E.D. can move around the house with snacks. I am currently debugging some errors. The board and chassis setup I am using has speed and directional pins used to control the appropriate functions in the wheels/tracks. M1 is the right track, and M2 is the left track, so "directionPinM1, HIGH" states that the right track is moving forward. While "analogWrite(speedPinM1, rightSpeed);" states we can set the speed of M1 when we're using it later, or just pre-define it.
Thank you to those who helped organize Winter Hardware Wonderland!
Here is the Super Mario video I mentioned earlier..Winter Hardware Wonderland Day 9 #hardware-party
All right guys, this morning, two epic things happened. Epic thing one: I have my speaker playing the Super Mario theme! And epic thing two: The robot is finally working! The board, motors, wheels, batteries, it's all working! So in the next 30 hours, it's time to program like I never have before! I'm currently working on the Pixycam's color and line tracking functions. Check out the video below to hear and see the awesomeness! Keep going! We are almost there!
Winter Hardware Wonderland Day 8 #hardware-party
Today, I connected the Pixycam to the RoMeo BLE and ran the test code to make sure everything was working properly... and it was! When the camera sees a “learned” object, the Arduino IDE's serial monitor shows the values seen in the picture. I have also run the line tracking demo code without the camera attached to a chassis, which was also a success! So, next on the agenda: finish the line tracking code to fit my robot's purpose.
TWO DAYS TO GO EVERYONE! Let's keep pushing!
Winter Hardware Wonderland day 7 #hardware-party
I am studying line tracking for the Pixycam, as that will be the method used when A.L.F.R.E.D. is called to a food station. In the basic mode, the camera will name the line it sees "vector" but when it reaches an intersection it will continue in the line that is the straightest. Thankfully, I finished a short course on C++ yesterday, meaning I have some experience to Invoke for this software job. After this portion, I plan to begin work with the IMU!
Also, a couple of days ago, I was not getting any voltage readings from the motor controllers and did not know why. But after some research, and playing with the board, I FINALLY got some readings! The RoMeo BLE has special pin headers that, when plugged in, enable the motors. Excelsior!
Winter Hardware Wonderland day 6 :winter-hardware-wonderland: #hardware-party
Today I set up Visual Studio Code for Arduino connections. I ran some test code which you can see in the attached image. I finished a C++ Hour of Code and did some research for the Pixycam and Ultrasonic sensor. Next, I plan to start programming my Pixy, test the IMU, and find some type of AI for my screen so I can give the robot personality.
Winter Hardware Wonderland Day 5 #hardware-party
I had a short workday, as I keep the Biblical Sabbath. Today I have been setting up my Pixycam. I have taught it to recognize a red and blue items (pictures attached). The Pixycam can recognize up to 7 color signatures (Pixycam docs). This is the first step in the big picture of getting the Pixy to recognize more specific identifiers! Also, on Friday, I set up the BLE link dongle and the RoMeo BLE so I can wirelessly send code via Bluetooth! This is a very useful feature, as I do not have to move my robot to my PC station every time I want to test code.
Let's continue! onward!
Winter Hardware Wonderland Day 4 :winter-hardware-wonderland: #hardware-party
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I've been having problems with my computer not recognizing my RoMeo. It was on the robot chassis with four screws attached. I detached the wheels, then started to remove screws from the board. Afterward, I back to the computer… and it worked! The computer recognized it, and I could load my code! I was so excited that I exclaimed and woke my mother. Then, I started working on Bluetooth connections using the app GoBLE, testing voltages (as seen below), and wire connections. Now, onward to the motors!
Covering the rudiments of C++ for the Arduino! My experience with Javascript and Python has been helpful.
Winter Hardware Wonderland Day 3 :winter-hardware-wonderland: #hardware-party
#WinterSnacks
Today, I prepared some homemade cinnamon bread and placed it on a bed of sugar-coated coconut; we engineers need to keep our energy up!
Lately, I have been trying to upload some code to my Romeo BLE (essentially a DFrobot Bluetooth-enabled Arduino Uno with motor controllers), It is not running yet, but I'm working on it! Also, I have put the bare-bones chassis together and am working on the insides. I hope everyone is doing well on their projects.
Happy Hacking!
Assembling the bot! Plan to upload some code for basic function soon.
Here's my current status:Winter Hardware Wonderland Day 1 :winter-hardware-wonderland: #hardware-party
A.L.F.R.E.D ButlerBot (PR here: github.com/hackclub/winter/blob/main/Captain-AJ.md)
Welcome all to the start of a great adventure! I hope everyone is making great progress on their projects. Personally, I have started building my
Autonomous food delivery bot: A.L.F.R.E.D. Which stands for Advanced, Little, Fit, Robot, Education, Device. Today I've just about finished the wheels of my robot, I had some trouble with the suspension due to screw tightness, but all is fixed now! Tomorrow I plan to make a basic
remote-controlled robot for testing. I am currently learning about Arduino hardware and software and will start learning C and C++. That's all for now!
