2019/2020 SpartanSuperway Small Scale Team

SSST Blog 3/11/2020 Progress for this week: Controls Team The stepper motor and the PixyCam are able to work together. After connecting an external power supply to power the stepper motor, the Arduino was able to provide adequate power to activate the PixyCam. When the PixyCam reads a barcode, it sends a signal to the stepper motor to stop. The iPhone application was finally able to get connected to the BLE as shown in Figure 1. The issue with connecting the iOS app to the BLE was due to using the wrong UUID. Figure 1. iOS app connected to BLE module. In addition, the second BLE module is being ordered on Amazon to be used for the second bogie. Guideway Team The outer loop of the guideway has been laser cut and assembled using washers and nuts as shown in Figure 2. The nuts and washers are used to sandwich each guideway piece together and can be tightened using an adjustable wrench. Figure 2. Outer loop and smaller inner loop of guideway assembled.  Initially ...

SSST Blog 3/4/20 Progress for the week: Controls Team: The controls team this week made significant progress with the pixy cam. The cam is now integrated into the main arduino code with the BLE, ultrasonic, and motor. The program waits for an input from the BLE then looks for the corresponding bar code, as shown in Figure 1., using the pixy while running the motor. It stops when the bar code is found.  Figure 1:  Bar codes that the Pixy cam will recognize as different stations.  The blog man who wrote the guide to connect the iOS app to the BLE also responded back to Julio, giving useful tips to try to fix the connection issues. These tips will be used in the upcoming week to help run the app smoothly.  Guideway Team: The outer loop of the track was assembled onto the base. Most if not all of the nuts, washers and rods were used, as well as the straight and curved pieces. More of these pieces and parts will need to be bought or manufactured in the Mak...

SSST Blog 2/27/20 Progress for the week: Controls Team  This week for the controls team, Asmaa made progress with the Pixy2 cam. She continued to work on learning how to use the Pixy cam software, she was also able to get the pixy cam to read different bar codes which will eventually represent stations on the guideway. Some of the bar codes that will be used for the Pixy cam to head to different stations can be seen below in figure 1: Figure 1: Bar codes that the Pixy cam will recognize as different stations.  Asmaa also worked on an Arduino code which implemented the Pixy cam into the prior codes that had been written. The Fritzing layout can be seen below in figure 3: Figure 2: Fritzing layout of implementation of Arduino and Pixy cam In terms of the app, progress was made with the connection between the iOS app and the BLE. A new guide was followed as to how to establish this connection, however, the app gets stuck in the scanning phase. Essentially, th...

Progress for this week: Controls Team: To become more familiar with the Pixy Cam several tests were conducted throuhgout the week. After the team decided to switch over to barcodes for the stations the team saw that this method was better. A sheet of the 10 barcodes was then printed out and the team tested how accurate the pixy cam was at ientifying the different codes. The team will is now working on trying to develop a test which will incorporate the arduino along with the other electrical componenets. Figure 1: Barcode recognition by Pixy2 Guideway Team: The guideway team made progress on determining how the track will be supported and what materials we will use to build it. The team setteled on using mdf wood with a thickness of .25". The laser cutter cuts the wood accurately and precisely at the maker space, however, the space is only available during the week days from 10am to 6pm. The supporting stands will use 3ft long zinc threaded rods with nots and washers to ...

Progress for this week: Controls Team: The controls team continues to make progress toward a functional BLE that communicates the Arduino to the iOS app. The plan is to get a working BLE in 2 weeks' lead time. The pixy2 cam had arrived and the team became familiar with it. Numbers have been assigned to the camera to be recognized, but the team decided that a barcoded identification of station numbers will be more accurate and easier to program to the Arduino, see figure 1. Some example Arduino codes with pixy cam has been explored. Figure 1: Barcode recognition by Pixy2 Guideway Team: The guideway team made progress on determining how the track will be supported and what materials we will use to build it. As explained per last week's blog, an attempt was made to laser cut plywood at Makerspace, but there was no success due to the quality and thickness of plywood we have in hand. Taking away from Bill James' guideway assembly, a decision was made to use MDF wood. T...

Blog 1/29/2020 Progress for this week: Controls Team: The controls team plans on presenting a functioning app thjat can be downloaded on an iPhone. As a contingency plan, a wifi module will be used in case the Arduino to the iOS app has any problems. An app called BLExAR will also be a plan Z, just in case the iOS app doesn't work at all, as seen in Figure 1. Figure 1. BLExAR Guideway Team: The guideway team will continue finalizing the designs for the track. The base and stands will continue to stay the same, but water jetting the pieces of the track is a first priority. The y-switch and y-junction are a crucial aspect to the guide-way. After testing of the track is made, the guide way team plans to incorporate the y-switch at the top to see how it will affect the overall project. In case the y-junction designed by this year does not work, there is always Bill James' model to look towards too. He has a functioning y-junction as seen in Figure 2. Figure 2. Bill J...

Blog 2/6/2020 Progress for this week: Controls Team: The iPhone application code is being developed to work with a Bluetooth module. During this process other BLE modules are being considered as well. A bench model that includes all of the electronic components is also in the works. Once this is completed, the electronics will be integrated into the bogie for further testing.  Guideway Team: The original plan was to waterjet the unused plywood in the Superway Design Center; however, plans have slightly changed. We will be using a laser cutter instead of waterjet to manufacture components of the guideway. The laser cutter in the Makerspace is more accessible and does not require supervision during use. On the other hand, the waterjet requires supervision by staff members when they are available. To speed manufacturing, laser cutter as shown in Figure 1 was determined to be most efficient. Figure 1. Laser cutter in Makerspace. Figure 2. Plywood from Design Center cut b...