• Crossbow and final touch

    Zacharie • 06/12/2023 at 19:49 • 0 comments

    Now that it is self balancing we need the crossbow.

    And a projectile

    We needed it to have enough surface so the elastic can hit it properly.

  • Complete robot

    Zacharie • 06/12/2023 at 08:35 • 0 comments

    A lot happened last week and we didn't have time to update the project so everything is gonna happen in this log.

    So first we got all the parts and started building the robot. We assembeled the body that we 3D printed (in green) with hot glue. Then we wired the arduino, the driver and the gyroscope that we put on the second and third 'floors' respectively. Then we attached the motors and the wheels together and glued them at the bottom. We soldered them to wires that went into the driver. (We wired them wrong at first so we had to do it again). Finally, we used a battery (12V) to power the driver that had a 5V output to the arduino card, with a switch we soldered to turn it on and off.

    First problem we encountered was that, without the usb from the arduino to the computer, the robot wasn't powered properly and couldn't self balance. We added another 6V battery to the arduino and removed to 5V output from the driver, with a new switch. Then, after a lot of testing that went either really well or really bad, we noticed that the gyroscope wasn't oriented properly. Now the only thing left to do is test more values of the offest, kp etc to have it working perfectly.

    More videos of it working (or not working) on the page

  • Coding

    Zacharie • 05/17/2023 at 17:49 • 0 comments

    Today was somewhat of a setback because we couldn't get the printing done. We did pretty much finish the code though, the only thing left is building the robot to fine-tune the settings accordingly. Not having the components was a pretty big hit and we couldn't be as productive as we wanted to.

  • Parts done

    Zacharie • 05/10/2023 at 20:25 • 0 comments

    Today we finally got the ordering part done and can now shift our focus entirely on the 3d models and coding. We are going to 3D print the main body which is going to look like a shelf with 3 storeys with holes for the cables as well as the crossbow part. We are going to put the battery in the middle floor of the body, the gyroscope on top and the arduino and driver module at the bottom. The crossbow is going to sit at the top of the body and has a motor that will push the string up, launching a projectile.

  • Designing

    Zacharie • 05/03/2023 at 17:09 • 0 comments

    Today we spent more time looking for parts that were suitable for our projet and already aquired 2, and we started working on the 3D models for the self balancing base and the crossbow.

  • Nice progress

    Zacharie • 04/19/2023 at 16:57 • 0 comments

    19/04


    Even though we had half of the usual time, we found a lot of useful ressources for our project and we can see clearly the direction in which we are going. The only thing that is still unclear is how we are going to set up an automatic reload. We've seen some ways of doing it but it takes a lot of space on the crossbow and thus will make it heavier and possibly harder to balance.

  • A rough day

    Zacharie • 04/12/2023 at 15:46 • 0 comments

    12/04/2023


    Since we added someone to the team we decided to combine both ideas : the cannon cart became a self balancing crossbow on wheels. The crossbow part is still in the very early stages of developement and using cardboard wasn't exactly the best idea as it broke almost immediately when playing with the rubber band. We also had issues with the servos as only one of them was turning 360° and the other only 180° (but only when electricity was coursing through it). Changing the servo and the emmiter didn't change anything so we need to figure out something else.

    (photos are the ones used in the thumbnail)