2019/2020 SpartanSuperway Small Scale Team

SSST Blog 4/9/2020 Progress for this week: Due to the recent changes that the team had to undergo, most of the week was spent refining and finilizing the new project goals. Controls Team Because the controls team does not rely heavily on what was available in the superway center, the scope for controls did not change much. Because time was spent adjusting and adapting, some dealines had to be pushed back and a complete physical system that incorporated the app, arduino and the two pods had to be set aside. However, both the iOS app and the arduino code will still be written so that it could work in unison to control the pods. This past week a successful table top sysetm of the motors and sensors (which include the servo motors and the pixy cam) was developed and tested. With the BLE connecting, research was conducted on how to incorporate user inputs that would send specific signals to the BLE. Guideway Team With out access to the superway center and the maker space the guidew...

SSST Blog 3/26/2020 Progress for this week: The Small Scale team met this week to discuss our plan moving forward with our project after the recent changes that are going on. The team decided to continue meeting online via Zoom or Google Hangout to discuss our progress. The meetings will be happening every week. This week we also met as a class with Dr. Furman. We explained our plan with him and explained our schedule that is shown below in figure 1. The schedule shows the main goals of our team for the rest of the semester. Plans for next week Next week is spring break, but the team is still planning to meet to encourage ourselves to meet the deadlines that we set. For controls, the Arduino code will implement the switching mechanism servos. By adding this, the Arduino code will be complete and ready to be used along with the iOS app. The next step for the iOS app is adding a text box that allows the user to type data that can be sent to the BLE. More thing is planned to...

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...