Week 4

We basically finished all the objectives of this car project, still working on to improve it.

Achievements

1. The car can realize functions like 'forward' and 'left'.
2. The codes improved.

Problem

1. The initial battery case was not suitable for the car because the voltage is too high, so we replaced it with another case.
2. The connection was not stable.

Picture of the car

Figure 1. The initial design of the car

In the picture the wires are messy which leads to the bad connection of the car. To solve that problem, a bread board was attached to gather the wires. Also, the Bluetooth mode is connected to the bread board.

Comments

The project is basically finished by week 4, but there exists some place for improvement. We finally gave up using Raspberry Pi 3, because there was a lot of problems. To improve the performance of the car, a new battery case is needed and some new functions should be attached.

Week 3

For week 3, it was an important step. We made efforts to soldered the shield kit which can make the motor work. However, there were some troubles with Raspberry Pi witch made us give it up. The system of Raspberry was installed successfully, but we could hardly get through how it controls the car. Still, only with Arduino the project can work the same well.

Achievements

1. The shield was received and soldered successfully.
2. The codes were able to run.
3. Installed the system of Raspberry Pi.

Problems

1. There were difficulties to use Raspberry Pi.
2. The Bluetooth mode could not work well on the car.
3. The Battery case has much too high voltage (12 V).

The picture of the shield kit

Figure 1. The Instruction of the Shield (from online)

Figure 2. The Actual Image of Our Shield

It was a kit when received including all the parts including resistors, capacitors, switches and so on. As you can see, it was soldered perfectly and could work well with power connected. For the connection, the output A and B are connected to the motors while the power is connected to the batteries. 

The IC on the shield -- The L298 

Below are the pin connection introduction and the circuit of bidirectional DC motor control.

Figure 2. The Pin Connection of the L298 [1]

Figure 3. The Bidirectional DC Motor Control Circuit[1]

Comments

The car was able to move, but not worked well with voice control. It didn't work well with Raspberry Pi 3. The connection of pins and wires can be wrong. Codes need further debug.

Reference

1. https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Robotics/L298_H_Bridge.pdf

Week 2

This week we still not got all the items. We mainly worked on the codes, and the results of coding were satisfactory.

Achievements

1. All parts received except the shield.
2. Successfully connected the Bluetooth  mode
3. Started coding

Problems

1. Shield was not received.
2. The coding on arduino has a lot of bugs, not even close.

Pictures of parts

Figure 1. The Raspberry Pi 3 

Figure 2. The HC-05 Bluetooth mode

Figure 3. The Arduino Uno

Figure 4. The battery case (4*AA batteries)

From the figures we can see the basic parts were collected. The quality of the parts were good. However there is still no shield, so the assembly task was postponed.

Comments

This week the project started, but things were not going smoothly. Both coding and assembly were facing big challenges. We were still waiting for the shield.

Week 1

The first week we simply did nothing but get familiar with the received parts, though there were some parts missing. We started to consider the coding of the car and got the basic ideas.

Achievements

1. Most of the parts were received and checked.
2. The basic structure of the car was constructed.
3. The basic ideas on coding come out.

Problems

1. Important parts missing (including the battery case, shield and Arduino due to the delivery).
2. Lack of different kinds of wires (USB, HDMI, Ethernet cables).

List of Parts

1. Arduino Uno(missing)
2. Shield of Arduino(missing)
3. Battery case(missing)
4. Toy car model(with the help of AA)
5. Raspberry Pi 3
6. Android smartphone(self prepared)
7. Bluetooth mode HC-05
8. Car model with motors
9. cables(borrowed from lab)

Comments

It was rough from the first week when the parts are still on the delivery. We've simply done the most basic thing.