Friday, March 21, 2014

Mapping Robot - update 5

Progress since last milestone
I've decided to take a new challenge and decided to swap out my Arduino Mega 2560 to the Intel Galileo,  which is a beef up version of the Arduino Uno, but the same pins.

Problems/Difficulty encountered
Since the Intel Gailileo requires a 5V, 3A power supply, I had to order a 5V step down regulator. I ordered the Pololu Step-Down Voltage Regulator D15V35F5S3.
This regulator takes an input voltage range of 4.5V - 24V DC and converts it to 3.3V or 5V DC with up to 3.5 amp current draw. I also ordered another LIPO battery just for the Galileo that is 11.1 V, 3.3 A.

Proposed progress for the next milestone
When the battery and regulator comes in, i"ll add the Galileo to my mapping robot.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Mapping Robot - update 4

Progress since last milestone
Well... I basically completed the robot Out of all my milestones, going through a maze is the last thing i need to do. All i need is a maze to show that it can go through a maze, however from the results that i have gathered just for the fact it can follow a wall and make turns, i'm confident that it can go through a maze that that can fit it and have enough room for turns. I also went further by adding four push buttons that allows the view of the map to be scrolled up, down, left or right.

Problems/Difficulty encountered
I had a issue with one of my batteries (9V alkaline) that powered my Arduino micro controller  and everything else except the motor. The problem was that my battery couldn't provide enough current to power everything (basically my LCD back light) so when i would run my robot, my ultra sonic sensors were working sometimes. So to fix this issue, I had an extra 7.4V LIPO battery, i just used that to powered my arduino and everything worked perfectly fine again.

Proposed progress for the next milestone
Hopefully i get a suitable maze to finally show that my robot can properly do as it was intended.