By: Diane Kim (Division Manager of E&C Hardware) Verified By: Jordan Smallwood (Pathfinder Project Manager) Approved By: Miguel Garcia (Quality Assurance) Table of Contents Introduction Eagle is a program used to design and layout custom boards. We went through a series of training for using Eagle CAD. Training 1: Schematic The first training was based […]
By: Jordan Smallwood (Project Manager) Approved by: Miguel Garcia (Quality Assurance) Table of Contents Introduction One of the requirements of the Pathfinder is to determine whether a no-load condition is present, we needed to define what that condition is. In order to test the characteristics of our motor a simple experiment was conducted. The idea […]
By: Jordan Smallwood (Pathfinder Project Manager and Electronics & Control) Approved By: Miguel Garcia (Quality Assurance) Table of Contents Introduction: The idea is that if any of our motors are under a no-load condition we want to cease power to that motor, since it makes no sense to waste power on a freely spinning motor. […]
By: Adolfo Jimenez (Manufacturing) Verified By: Jordan Smallwood (PM) Table of Contents Introduction Figure 1: Top View of Solar Panel Structure One of the requirements for the pathfinder project is that the robot should be able to enter and exit a cocoon state via user input in the Arxterra app. This feature is reminiscent of […]
By: Jordan Smallwood (Project Manager and Electronics & Control) Approved By: Miguel Garcia (Quality Assurance) Table of Contents Introduction In order to develop an object avoidance routine we needed to verify that the ultrasonic sensors would work for detecting objects. To verify the field of view a simple experiment was constructed that would determine the […]
By: Jordan Smallwood (Project Manager and Electronics & Control) Approved By: Miguel Garcia (Quality Assurance) Probably the coolest part in most mechatronic designs would have to be bearings. They’re simple but confusing and very amusing, at least for me. There are many different types of bearings in all different shapes, sizes, colors, and functionalities. The […]
By: Jordan Smallwood (Project Manager and Electronics & Control) Approved By: Miguel Garcia (Quality Assurance) Table of Contents Introduction Have you ever considered how a train makes a turn? Really try and think about it, it has two wheels on a track separated by a distance but when it turns it doesn’t fly off the […]
By: Jordan Smallwood (Project Manager and Electronics & Control) Approved by: Miguel Garcia (Quality Assurance) Table of Contents Introduction If you think back to your days of EE 346 you’ll remember the daunting feeling of dealing with interrupts. While we barely skimmed the surface, they’re really not that troublesome. The thing to note is that […]
By: Mohammad Yakoub (Mission, Systems, and Test) Verified By: Jordan Smallwood (Project Manager) Approved by: Miguel Garcia (Quality Assurance) A Buck converter is a DC-to-DC power converter which steps down voltage (while stepping up current) from its input to its output. Switching converters such as buck converters provide much greater power efficiency as DC-to-DC converters […]
By: Jordan Smallwood (Project Manager) Approved by: Miguel Garcia (Quality Assurance) Table of Contents Introduction One of the many benefits of working with the Arxterra App is the ability to create custom commands and communicate with your robot over Bluetooth. Although many of the necessary commands have been predefined there is still plenty of room […]