User:Mbroemme5783/enes100/Wheelchair

Write problem/project Goal
Our overall goal for this project is to get a motorized wheelchair to interface with an arduino and eventually incorporate some autonomous elements into the chair.

My First Task
Over the first weekend, I familiarized myself with some of the issues the last group was having. I looked of the tutorials and I have a good idea of where the other group left off.

Summary of Actual Work Over The First Weekend
The manual that the previous team posted has a detailed description of the types of electronic controllers used in this model of the wheelchair. The specific model type is called a MKIV Quad Pulse and it looks pretty straightforward in terms of what types of inputs it reads and then how it interprets this data to the motors of the wheelchair. The electronic controller accepts its input from the joystick controller, which also looks to provide the controller with power through the main charger. We will need to reattach the wires that originally connected to the motor, as those won't need to be manipulated. If the controller can read inputs from an arduino controlled joystick, then the controller itself won't need to be manipulated, but we have yet to hook the joystick up to a computer.









Week1 Narrative
This first week mainly consisted of reviewing the previous group's work and finding starting points. The overall goal as the last team with the project is to start putting the wheelchair back together and establishing some measure of control with an Arduino. I started with finding out what electronic control process the wheelchair uses. The electronic controls are located at the base of the wheelchair and we have two spare control boxes that we can hook an Arduino to without removing the box already on the wheelchair.

My Second Task
Find out how the electronic controller responds to signals and find out what wires need to connect to the motor. I will then try to reconnecting some of the parts of the wheelchair so we can begin to put this project together.

Summary of actual work over second weekend
Over the second weekend, most of my time was spent figuring out my next step on this project. I have completed the connections which I believe are necessary to get this wheelchair back together, so I need to move on to something else productive. If the right motor was working, all the connections the wheelchair would need would be in place, so while Victor finishes working on that motor, I will work on giving the controller input from the joystick with the connections I have already made. I found a good example of how an arduino could be integrated into an existing joystick system Joystick-Arduino guide which does a good job of mapping out what we may need to do to our joystick.

Week2 Narrative
During this shortened week, I finally was able to get a firm grasp on how the wheelchair is actually put together. Originally, I only tried to figure out how the electronic controller worked with the wheelchair; however, I realized that modifying the controller would only make the whole process of fixing the wheelchair too convoluted. I began to look at the ways in which the controller connected to the other parts of the wheelchair. I figured out that the bundle of wires that were permanently attached to the controller were responsible for the power, ground, and connection to the left and right motors. Then, I looked at how the joystick connects to the electronic controller and found a wire that connects the 7 pinned connector cable. The joystick will control the left and right motors when ran through the controller, so these are essentially the primary elements of how the wheelchair will end up working.

My Third task
For the next week, I will concentrate on making a tutorial of how to make all the connections for the wheelchair. Then, I will collaborate with Steven and figure out how he needs help with the joystick control.

Summary of actual work over third weekend
The replacement joysticks that I have been looking into online are surprisingly expensive. Our original joystick for instance goes for about $500, which makes the purchase of another joystick unreasonable. As such, most of my time this weekend was spent searching for either wire adapters, or ways to splice together two joysticks. I was able to track down the most promising website so far and will use it to compare to the replacement joysticks, as some of the replacement wiring on the website may be able to adapt a joystick to our controller. Motor Scooter Wiring

Week3 Narrative
At the beginning of the week, I made a simple sketch that details how each part of the wheelchair is connected to each other. Essentially, the joystick and battery are inputted into the electronic controller, which outputs signals and power to the left and right motor of the wheelchair. This week, I primarily was concerned with the joystick and its connection to the electronic controller. Although the original joystick still has the wire connecting it to the controller, it is missing the top part of its assembly. I have looked over both previous team's pages and asked previous members, but no one could tell me where the top might be. Therefore, I took apart another InvaCare joystick that had simlar wiring, but a different output. Here we can see the comparisons of the two joysticks.

The internal similarities might indicate that we could combine both joysticks into one functioning unit that could be read by the electronic controller. I have also researched the possibility of finding a wire adapter so that the other joysticks could possibly connect to the controller, but I could not find any, even on invacare's supply site. I then shifted my attention to the broken right motor and my team and I began to try to tackle why it was broken. I began by documenting and taking pictures as my team and I took the motor apart carefully. We had to scrape a significant amount of dirt and grime from the outsides of the motor, but it did not look like that was affecting how the motor worked.

My Fourth task
My fourth task will include finding a way for the original joystick, or a replacement joystick, to work with the electronic controller. All the other parts of the wheelchair are coming together, so it looks like making the joystick work will be the final piece.

Summary of actual work over fourth weekend
The fourth weekend was mostly split between wrapping up my work on the wheelchair and finding appropriate next steps  for the next group. While the physical components of the wheelchair are all back in place and working, we still do not

have a way to control the wheelchair because the original joystick does not work. Therefore, the only reasonable next

steps will be to either find a way to bypass the electronic controller altogether, or to create a replacement joystick.

Both options present unique challenges, but these are the logical next steps before an attempt at autonomous control is attempted.

Week4 Narrative
This week primarily consisted of bringing all the pieces of the wheelchair pack together. After we had fixed the broken right

motor, the last obstacle towards moving this project was successfully overcome. As such, much of the work this week focused

how each piece of the wheelchair could be implemented, while still leaving room for future modifications. The first step to this

was mounting the two 12 Volt batteries onto the frame. Below is a picture of the connection area, where two metal outputs slid into

place on the respective negative and positive sides.

Next, we tested the motor with the battery in order to find the rotational speeds of the left and right motors. It turned out that both motors rotated at about one revolution per second when plugged directly into a power source. The fact that both motors spun at roughly similar speeds indicates that both motors are functioning correctly, which means we could concentrate on the electronic controller and joystick. I plugged in the original joystick into the electronic controller when the battery was supplying power to the controller. The joystick, while incomplete, lit up to indicate it was receiving power from the batteries. Although we might not end up using this joystick, or even a replacement joystick, this still indicated that the wheelchair had the appropriate connections, which distributed power correctly.

Complete Team Page
Wheelchair Project