User:Drew Dollas/enes100/Glorious2

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Problem Statement
We will create a Hover Craft that can be controlled by a remote control, and then will enable an autopilot system.

Assign Task1
I will continue working on remote control car receivers and transmitters.

Compare actual work done to Task1
I got the bottom fans on the hovercraft wired up to a switch with two 9 volt battery running through it, so that we can turn the switch on to have the fans on, and just turn the switch off to turn the fans off. I determined that one 9 volt battery going to each fan was not quite enough, because the fans are supposed to be given 12 volts of power. But I also ran into the problem of the fans draining the batteries very quickly. So I will need to find some way to fix that. Also, it was figured out that if we put weight on the hovercraft while the skirt is lifting up the hovercraft, it builds the pressure in the skirt, and makes it so the hovercraft moves more easily across the ground.

Week1 Narrative
We needed a way to turn on and keep on the bottom fans, so I saudered their wires to a switch, and made it powered by two 9 volt batteries. Also, I was trying to figure out a way to give the two fans enough power from a battery, because the fans should have 12 volts, while I was only giving them 9 volts. So I attached two 9 volt batteries together, and put the wires from the fans in a parallel circuit powered by my new 18 volt battery. And the 18 volts battery gave the fans a lot of power to blow. But even thought the whole hovercraft was being lifted off the ground, it was not sliding very well. And when I put something heavy on it, I noticed that the hovercraft slid on the floor more easily.

Assign Task2
I need to get a good 12 volt battery that will not drain super fast to use for each downward fan, because the two 9 volt batteries that are connected together that I am using right now drain too quickly. Also, we need to find two good fans to put on the back of our hovercraft to propel it forward, and then find a good power source for the fans, and wire it up so that we can control those fans with the remote.

Compare actual work done to Task2
I did not look into finding the perfect battery to power our hovercraft. Instead, my efforts were put towards trying to make the hovercraft be able to slide more easily across the floor. Our hovercraft originally just had the plastic that came wrapped around the styrofoam as our skirt. But the hovercraft needs less surface area touching the ground so that less friction restricts movement. I started making duck tape tubes going just around the outside of the hovercraft. I finished 3 sides of it so far.

Week2 Narrative
Before I wanted to find a better fan to use to propel our hovercraft forward, I wanted to try to give the fan we were using a chance. So I ended up trying to make tubes going around the outside of the bottom of the hovercraft. They are made out of duck tape, and I finished 3 of the 4 sides so far.

Assign Task3
To finish the duck tape tubing around the hovercraft, and to just be able to get the hovercraft moving well on its own.

Compare actual work done to Task3
I finished my duck taping on the hovercraft. I did not make the duck tape into tubes, instead, I just left the flaps open because the amount of air that we have blowing into them is enough to keep it inflated even though it is completely open. And it worked okay, but the flaps were not as tight as they could be. After Austin made the tighter duck tape skirt, I turned on the fans, and it was better, but it was still not sliding across the floor like I wanted it to. So, I took off the two 9 volt batteries that I had going to those two fans blowing downward and I hooked up one of those 11.1 volt rechargeable batteries to the two fans in parallel. When I flipped the switch on, the fans worked much more efficiently than they did with the two 9 volt batteries. And the hovercraft slid across the ground the best it has every slid. It is still not perfect, but I believe that we could not have done much better.

Week3 Narrative


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPR6dG7slQw - Our hovercraft using the two 9 volt batteries with approximately 400 milliamp-hours

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCx19otHe7g - Our Hovercraft using the one 11.1 volt battery with approximately 2100 mAh

As you can see, it slides much more smoothly with the 11.1 volt battery



I read the response from Devilsadvocate1728 on this page http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070613091102AAomE78 to help me understand a little more about how batteries work

Assign Task4
To get some fans on the back of the hovercraft hooked up

Compare actual work done to Task4
I learned about how the Lithium Polymer rechargeable batteries work. I learned that the ones we have can be dangerous. For the 11.1 volt battery that we are using, if you touch the positive and negative wire together, it creates very large sparks. These batteries have a lot of current running through them and very little resistance in them. I hooked up a 9-volt battery to this motor with a propeller on the end of it, and it didn't spin very fast. But when I hooked up that 11.1 volt battery, it spun way too fast. This is not really because the voltage is higher coming from the 11.1 volt battery, it is because there was so much current running through the system. In conclusion, it does not only matter how much voltage the battery can supply, but the amount of amps that can run through the circuit is also a very important factor. Also, for recharging the battery, I learned that I need to monitor the battery and not let it over charge, because it can explode. And I came across this tutorial for charging up a battery on the charger that we have at HCC.

1. Go into the Thunder AC6 settings on the dual power unit, and use the "Batt. Type" button to locate the USB and temperature settings. Turn on USB and turn off Temperature.

2. Load the CP210x USB to UART Bridge VCP Drivers (makes the USB look like a Com Port) https://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx

3. Load the logview software http://www.logview.info/cms/e_logview_info.phtml

Power up the charger, plug the USB in the computer and hopefully it will detect the new device and load the USB drivers..

Run the Log View Program select English

Select the DEVICE Bantam E-station BC6 charger.. select in DEVICE Open Port Recording

To start charging batteries using the charger -

1. Use program select to choose your type of battery

2. Change the amp and volt values on the charger to the voltage of the battery, and the recommended charge amps specified on the battery

3. Hold the start button

It should require you to hit start once more, and then it will start charging. It will show you the current voltage of the battery, the charging rate, and the time it has been charging. As it charges, if it is connected to the logview program, you should be able to see a graph forming. If you cannot, try changing the tabs below the graph from "Graph," to "Analog View" or "Digital View."

Aside from the batteries, I determined that it will just be easiest to use a motor with a propeller attached to the end of it instead of an actual fan, because there are not any good fans available for our use. So now I have been trying to get the correct amount of power going to the motor. I have not been able to find a good battery to use for it, So I will just not use remote control methods for now, instead, I will use the machine that can give the exact amount of volts and current that I want and have the hovercraft be attached by cable until we get everything working.

Week4 Narrative
One main problem that I had was determining how I was going to get the hovercraft to move forward. I have been trying to use fans for a while now, but none of the ones we have available in class seem to be doing the trick. So I decided that it was time to try something else. I found a motor with a propeller attached to it, and I starting giving power to this motor to see if the propeller will be enough to push the hovercraft forward. However, I could not find a good battery to power this motor. The general 9-volt battery was not enough, and the rechargeable batteries that I tried were way to strong. So I will be trying to just use the machine that lets me choose how much voltage and current to have running through the wires.

Complete Project Page
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Start Next Project Week0 activities
Use that machine that lets me choose how much voltage and current to having running to the motor to see if the propeller I found will be good enough. and to try to get two motors with two propellers on the back of the hovercraft working to push the hovercraft forward.