2019/2020 SpartanSuperway Small Scale Team

Blog 10/31/2019 Progress for this week: Controls Team  Bluetooth module as shown in Figure 1 arrived today and testing will begin this week. The bill of materials documenting part description, cost, and website to purchase has been created. Swift classes are currently being taken for advancing progress on the iPhone application.  Figure 1. ECH HM-10 Bluetooth LE Module Guideway Team The Guideway Team is reviewing feedback from Presentation 2 in order to make better progress on design changes. We are currently reviewing the corners of the track to determine the best angle, so the bogie does not get stuck. Another design change under consideration is the best way to align the guideway pieces. Dr. Furman mentioned using dowel pins at the end of Presentation 2 that we may want to consider using. An example of how the dowel pins can be used for alignment is shown in Figure 2. The guideway team will begin to work on making more progress for the bogie switch mechanism. ...

SST Blog 10/23/19 Progress for the week: Controls Team This week consisted of presenting the progress on the iOS app as well as the motor and ultrasonic sensors for the Arduino. The iOS app currently has three main tabs: a home, order pod, and map tab as seen in Figure 1. Figure 1. Main tabs of iOS app. There are small parts of code included (Figure 2), but there needs to be more practice done to meet the requirements for the app. All of the code relies on Xcode and Swift, which Julio will continue to work on. Figure 2. Snippet of code so far. There are multiple parts being ordered at the moment, with a general idea of what needs to be included into the hardware for the controls. Figure 3 shows a Fritzing layout of the hardware, and a snippet of the motor code can be seen in Figure 4.  Figure 3. Fritzing layout of the Arduino and other hardware connected. Figure 4. Code for motor. Guideway Team The guideway team has made considerable progress in th...

SSST Blog 10/17/19 Progress for the week: Controls Team  This weeks progress was similar to last weeks. The controls team focused on two separate tasks. Lissette and Asmaa continued to develop the test code for the motor and ultrasonic sensors. The purpose of this code is to simulate what would happen if two bogies get too close to one another, in which case the ultrasonic sensors would detect this and slow down the motor of the bogie that is getting too close to the other bogie. There were some issues with the code last week, so this week kinks were continued to be worked out. A snippet of the Arduino code can be seen below in figure 1: Figure 1: Snippet of code to control motor speed using ultrasonic sensor  The space where the small scale team works was also searched for useful components. While Lissette and Asmaa were working on this, I (Julio) was working on the iOS app. So far I am just learning the basics of the programming language Swift by watching courses ...

Team Blog #3 What we have completed: This week the Progress was made on the guideway and with controls. The controls team focused on writing some preliminary Arduino scripts and developing the interface of the app that will be used. Using some of the sensors and motors that we already have. The controls team was able to roughly simulate what the the motors on the pods will be doing. Using the apple programming language swift, the team was able to begin developing a basic layout of what the interface will look like. The only issue that the controls team is currently facing is how to use swift on non mac laptops. The Guideway Team focused on determining the best design for supporting the guideway rails with the base piece. There are two options that have been considered so far. The first option consists of a rectangular stand (2X4 wood) with a slot as seen in Figure 1 part 2. There will be an aligner tool as shown in Figure 2 that is used to clamp down the track to the rectangul...

This week's progress: Controls: During this week, the team has been doing research on the Bluetooth module we will be using to connect our mobile app to the Arduino. We narrow the options down to either the BLE-shield or the Bluefruit.                          vs  Guideway:  The team discussed how we will go about designing the base support for the guideway. We will be using PVC pipes, washers, nuts, and threaded studs for the supports to elevate the track. Complete by Next Week: Controls:  The team will be creating a BOM of the components and sensors we still need. The team will also make a prototype of a stepper motor controlled by an ultrasonic sensor.  Bogie:  The team will be designing a snap-fit design for the connection between the bogie and the pod and hopefully 3d print it as a demonstration for the rapid prototype assignment. Guideway: The team will be...