User:Mikehicks/enes100/My Work

Write problem/project Goal
Using the arduino board, and control multiple outputs on the board to control motors to move the robot arm.

My First Task
How to use arduino board to control several servo motors and once.

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

Over the weekend I had planned to use the arduino board and the motor shield with the stepper motor. But I couldn't get the my computer to communicate with the arduino board.

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

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

Summary of actual work over third weekend
Over the third weekend I worked on getting the stepper motors running so we could control the movement of the arm to have it function as if it was an elephant trunk. Also to come up with a way to control the pressure valve for on/off vacuum suction.

Week3 Narrative
I Found info on how to wire the stepper motor atStepper motor survey to find out which wires are what. After wiring it up properly I wanted to find a good sketch in the Arduinos examples section for stepper motors that would best suit our needs for the motor functions. But couldn't really find any after trying out a few, so I went on Google and searched for, "Arduino Stepper Motors" and found stepper motor sketch for arduino. Using the sketch they had for stepper motors I found I was able to control what types of steps ie.... double step, single step, and micro step, and also control the speeds. The single/double steps seemed to work the smoothest, also we will only be running at low speeds for each motor, and whether or not the motor is rotating forwards and backwards.

I know its Tuesday, but I just came up with a great idea for the pressure release on the vacuum! What we should do is use a servo motor and have a crescent shaped piece of plastic on it and have a hole in the tubing from the air vacuum and have it rotate forward and backwards to cover and uncover the hole and cover the hole to relieve pressure.

My Fourth task
Over my fourth week I plan on finding the exact movements for each motor to move the arm where exactly we want it to be. Also to finish making 2 more Motor setups to run the wire to the arm and move the arm around. I need help finding a Rubber stopper for this, I searched home depot couldn't find one! This week I will search around class for one. But if you guys have any ideas of where one could be let me know!

Summary of actual work over fourth weekend
This weekend I stuck with what I was going to originally do which was to create another stepper motor mount.

Week4 Narrative
Over the weekend I worked with the stepper motor mounts for the robot arm. After messing around with the wiring for the stepper motor i had to re-strip them because they weren't making good contact with the m1 and m2 ports, but from there on it was smooth.I currently have one that was built by a previous class, here is a video i made of it in action and what we plan on doing with it, Stepper Motor Mount. For the second one ive built started off with these materials the wheel and the metal bar I had to cut out of a printer rest of the parts where from home depot and some scrap wood. Figured the rubber wheel would be perfect for a replacement of the current rubber stopper on the original motor mount. When I first started screwing the brackets in for the stepper motor the wood kept splitting so I found a thicker and softer piece of wood to use and it worked out. Once I had the motor attached, I had to cut the metal bar from the printer with a saw which would hold the wheels and also drilled holes into the bracket to hold the bar with the wheel guide.Second stepper motor mount

Complete Project Page
Follow the "project done" format.