The date is: Fri Jan 29 11:45:12 MST 1999 1/25 - 1/29/99 Well, this week we actually made some progress. Since our group was put together at the last minute, we were not able to really get a feel for how things were going to work out for the semester right at the beginning. On tuesday after class, Larry, Tim, Ahmed, and I pretty much discussed what our interests were heading into the project. Since Tim has had previous experience with sensors, he decided to take the head in that area for the robot. We decided as a group, that it would be best if we paired up, so Ahmed and Tim are going to look into sensors. Larry and myself, decided to go ahead and get into the motor control since we decided that we will probably be using my HC11. For next week, Larry and I will probably be working on the H-bridges and trying to finish up debugging my HC11 board. Tim and Ahmed will be probably be researching different types of sensors for the robot. Tim has colleagues at Sandia Labs and may be able to get a hold of some sensors from there. Hopefully, we will actually get quite a bit of physical work done within the next week. The date is: Sat Feb 6 11:10:34 MST 1999 2/1 - 2/5 This week our group had a little more direction than last week. We finally had some tasks pretty much assigned out to each group member. Since Tim is going to focus on sensors, he was able to get in touch with some of his friends from Sandia and got a box of various sensors. If we can utilize these sensors, it will save on our overall cost for the project. I started out the week debugging my hc11. When I took ee308, I had run into trouble with my board when we did the memory expansion. So I went and did a continuity test on all the wire-wrapped pins and found two errors in my wiring. However, the problem is that everything seems to work fine as far as compiling and sending the s19 files to the hc11, but I can't access the expanded memory addresses. I keep getting the -rom error in Buffalo. I checked out all of the chips on another working hc11 board and they seemed to work out fine. It may be something in the actual microprocessor that is wrong, I don't know. Although my hc11 is out of commission for now, we were able to get a hold of a working board. Ahmed was able to get a working hc11 for backup. I still want to see if I can get my board to work, just in case. For next week, I plan on tackling the PWM. It seems that we are going to take the Altera approach. It seems like it would be the most versatile and easiest way to go about doing the PWM. I also want to get some work on the motors done next week. I want to test out our motors and see what kind of bugs they may have, if any. The date is: Fri Feb 12 11:20:04 MST 1999 2/8/99 - 2/12/99 This week Larry and I played around with the motors a bit and got them up and running. We didn't get to the H-bridges yet, we are planning to use the L298 series instead of the ones that were supplied in our kit. We heard from one of last year's group, that the L298's are not as fussy as the LMD18200's. Tim and Ahmed looked like they got some more work done on the sensors (wall and white line), and I think they even got into the power supply as well. We also did some preliminary planning for our group presentation next week. I think that we are going to make some transparencies and divide up the presentation into different areas and assign each group member to cover a specific topic. For next week we will probably be spending a lot of our time on preparing for the presentation. I hope to squeeze a little more work on the motors and H-bridges also. I think we are also going to make up a list of parts and order some stuff for next week. The date is: Fri Feb 19 12:19:11 MST 1999 2/15 - 2/19 This week we didn't get much work done on the robot. We spent most of our free time preparing for our oral presentation. I did a lot of work on the slides for our group. As far as our presentation goes, I think we did pretty good. We were able to cover basically everything that we wanted to get to. I was pretty impressed with the amount of questions that were asked about our choice of using the PIC microcontroller series for a large portion of our control. Well, for next week, I plan on really hitting the grindstone and getting some more progress done on the motor and chassis. I really want to get that portion of the robot done or near-done by the end of next week. Then hopefully our PIC will come in for our PWM, and we can begin on that. The date is: Fri Feb 26 16:06:15 MST 1999 2/22 - 2/26 Well, this week I did not get a chance to get a lot of actual, physical work done on the motors. I had to leave Socorro on Thursday afternoon to attend a career fair in Albuquerque. However, on Tuesday, I did get up quite a list for parts that we need for the robot. I haven't gotten in contact with the other group members, but they were supposed to submit the order forms to Carol on Thursday. For this weekend and next week, I plan on getting the H- bridges and final motor loose ends tied up. I plan on attacking the microcontroller(s) and formulating the code for the left-wall-following scheme. The date is: Fri Mar 5 13:37:52 MST 1999 3/1 - 3/5 This week Larry and I started to look at our control algorithm for the left wall following scheme. We took a look at an old CS program of Larry's which takes advantage of a recursive loop format. This will probably be the best bet for our group if it should work because since we are really pushing towards the PIC's as our choice of microcontroller, we are going to have to be as efficient with our code as possible. The recursive format of the program should allow us to achieve all the necessary elements for our algorith without the need of a bunch of memory bogging case statements. Originally, the program was written to navigate through a maze(it is similar to the maze screen saver in Windows), so we only need to modify the syntax a little to implement our needs into it. Also, some of our order came in this week as well. We received our H-bridges and our freq-voltage converters as well as the PIC's. This weekend and next week will probably be dedicated to getting the H-brige boards built. Also, Tim installed the compiler and MPLab(simulator) for the PIC's on our computer, so we will probably start with that as well. The date is: Fri Mar 12 16:14:29 MST 1999 3/8 - 3/12 This week I got final PCB layout for the H-bridge all worked out. I had to add in 8 schottky diodes in the circuit(4 for each side), which I got from Chris. I also had to add in some power resistors on the current sensing pins on the H-bridges to act as current shunts so we don't burn out the H-bridges. Incidentally, there was a mixup between orders and the freq-voltage converters that we picked up were not ours. Our order came in earlier this week, hopefully we got things ironed out in that area. However, I just realized that the chips we ordered are 14 pin packages instead of the 8 pin package. This shouldn't make much of a difference because I was checking out the data sheets and everything should work just fine. Well, next week is going to be pretty exciting. Since it is the last week we have before the midterm examination of the robots, our group will probably be working around the clock. I spent a little while figuring out what I needed to get done and tried to map out my schedule for next week. It turns out that I need to get the freq-voltage board built and have them running in conjunction with the encoders. I also need to get the motor control loop debugged and get the final modifications to the chassis underway. If needed, I along with Larry will probably work on the power supply dilemma as well. All in all, it should turn out to be a pretty eventful week. The date is: Fri Apr 9 16:27:52 MDT 1999 4/5 - 4/9 This week was not as exciting as the last couple of weeks. Since I was the only person in the group to actually make a pc board, I was pretty much nominated to do the design work for the rest of the boards for the robot. So, this week I just worked on the layout design for the sensor board on MicroSim. It turns out that we only need one board to provide for all of the sensors(flame, white line, and proximity), which will make the final design really nice. Next week I plan on finishing up the layouts for the sensor board, etching it, and soldering the components. I'll probably push to get the chassis down to final specifications and work on some code with Tim. The date is: Fri Apr 30 16:41:26 MDT 1999 4/26 - 4/30 This week was mainly dedicated to tying up any loose ends that needed to be done. Bascially we had to reassemble the robot because we took it apart to paint the entire chassis with a black enamel. I also had to do some more modifications to the sensor board to incorporate the microcontroller lines into the board. We also spent some time this week to prepare for our presentation on Saturday. After all of the work we have done, it looks as though we will most likely not be able to compete in the competition. We were not able to get a wall following scheme. It turns out that the assembly language barrier made it difficult for much progress to happen. We are probably a few more weeks away from a successful wall following scheme. Unfortunately, there is only a few more days left until the final functionality test. For the next portion of the week, we will most likely be making sure that all of our subsystems are operational and working (not neccessarily all integrated) for the functionality test. Hopefully, we will not get penalized too bad because our robot was not running through the maze this semester. Maybe our project will be helpful for another group that may decide to utilize the PIC microcontrollers for their robot. The date is: Thu May 6 15:58:09 MDT 1999 5/3 - 5/7 Well, this it the final weekly report and I must say that this week was pretty hectic. I spent most of my freetime in the lab trying to get everything connected and soldered on the robot. We put in quite a bit of work on the robot this semester but still we weren't able to get it fully functional. I think that it just took us longer to get the ball rolling as far as practical implementation goes. We came up with really great and innovative ideas, but we came just short when it came to the deadline. I think that it we had another couple of weeks we would be rolling. I must say that this was a really interesting semester. I learned a lot about real design issues and group dynamics. I think that I learned how valuable teamwork is and how much depends on good communication within an engineering group. I am pretty confidant that all was not for a loss. Even though that we didn't get a fully functional robot in time, I am confidant that we helped to pave the direction for future groups that may choose to take a different route.