User:JBers/enes100/My Work3

My First Task
What are you going to do for the team this first weekend?

Summary of actual work over first weekend
How is what you did different than what you planned?

Week1 Narrative
Tell a detailed story describing what you did for your team over the weekend.

My Second Task
Record what you are planning on doing for the team during the second weekend.

Summary of actual work over second weekend
How is what you did different than what you planned?

Week2 Narrative
/turnFanOnAndOff/[IR Sensor Controls Fan with Arduino] Code and video demonstration

/Turn2FansOnAndOff/[QRE1113 Digital IR Sensor Runs 2 Fans with Arduino] Code and video demonstration

My Third task
Record what you are planning on doing for the team during the third weekend.

Summary of actual work over third weekend
How is what you did different than what you planned? This week more time was spent working with the motorshield and arduino to figure out how to power the propulsion fans. I also worked on expanding the code for the prop fans.

Week3 Narrative
This week my primary focus is on getting both of the hovercraft fans to run via the arduino and motorshield.

Because the motors in the hovercraft change direction by switching the power and ground back and forth, I will need to use the H-bridge and the higher power capabilities of the MotorShield. I am going to follow the example found in the Arduino software named MotorParty. It is located in the MotorShield sub-menu. [Fan Direction Switching with Arduino and MotorShield]

My Fourth task
During the final week of the project I aim to step up the power output on the MotorShield in order to get the fans moving at a high enough rate to actually propel the hovercraft in a straight line. Also aim to integrate the IR sensor so that the hovercraft will only move along a black line on the floor.

Summary of actual work over fourth weekend
I am doing exactly what I had planned. I am expanding the Aduino Example "MotorShield/MotorParty" in order to run both hovercraft fans at once.

Week4 Narrative
Tell a detailed story describing what you did for your team over the weekend. Usign the Emample MotorShield/MotorParty, I explanded on the code to run both fans. This was done by first identifying and deleting any extra lines of coding that would not be needed for this project. I deleted terms relating to the running of servo and stepper motors because for the hovercraft project I will only be using DC Motors.

The following Link contains the code used to create basic forward and reverse functions from the Hovercraft using the Arduino and MotorShield. Initially only powered with the USB cable, both fans would not run simultaneously. With the addition of the DC Power adapter, both fans began spinning, however would not match rates. With the addition of the Hovercraft's 12volt battery, both fans began operating at full speed, as to be expected. /HovercraftFansRunOnMotorShield/ Video of both fans operating can be seen HERE.

Now that both fans can be run using the MotorShield, the next step is to integrate the IR Sensors into the programming in orer to get the Hovercraft's fans to respond to the values coming through the IR Sensor. The goal of this is to control the Hovercraft in such a way that it can follow a path defined by a continuous black stripe.

Complete Team Page
Fill out the Team Form (should have already copied the form, created the team page, linked to it and started filling it out).