Post #11: Wrangling with Wiring

5 hours of wire wrangling

Sweet!  My parts (pins, wire, heat shrink tubing) came in!  So I removed all my old wiring I really didn't like, started making custom cables to the lengths that I really like WAY BETTER.

Took the whole top layer off, rewired the feeder wires (motor controls, power converter).

My special connector for the PIXY came in, took it back apart, assembled the special connector and re-assembled!  So far, I'm very pleased with the results!  (Even retested the PIXY, I'll post a new video when if finally uploads!)

Finally!  I can now hit the main power switch on the side of the creeper and have my Arduino power up and start running!  The program (from post 10) is still installed, so if the compass is hooked up correctly, the watchdog led on the Arduino should flash every time the compass is read. It does!  I'm so pleased.

30 year old Crimpers

Anyway, to create my custom cables, I used an old pin crimping tool I used 25 years ago when I installed process control equipment in paper mills.

using the Zippo to shrink the wrap

These pics show the crimper, the pins and the heat shrink tubing I protect the pin with. A standard Zippo is all I used to shrink the wrap.


Felt good to get those old crimpers back out... ah good times. Pretty sure they don't make them like that anymore.

TIME OUT

Lets take a quick look at the progress our bright young engineers are making on their competition bots.  Today we assembled the competition arena and the students even got to run their bots around and practice a bit.  One team is rebuilding, they really didn't like how their bot was operating with the angled omni wheels.... But the other two are ready, practicing and looking for improvements.  Enjoy!

The Freshman team's bot

The Senior teams bot

The arena, before the floor was placed.  It is pretty large, 12' by 12'

 TIME IN

Back to the creeper.  Adafruit is sending me a new Bluetooth (their Bluefruit module).  I tried everything I could think of, multiple times.... and just could not get the device to present a Serial profile for me to connect to. Adafruit support agreed and are sending me a new one free of charge. That is pretty good support. Feel free to read the thread HERE.  I went back and forth a tiny bit, but in the end, that first Bluefruit just wasn't cutting the mustard.  Hopefully, in the next post I'll have more software ready.

One of my upcoming challenges is figuring out the knobs I need to turn for motor controls.  I plan to use (at least right now) one PID controller object to control the turning of the bot.  For turning, the setpoint is going to be heading (compass vs pixy object location).  This will probably end up being complex, but it will all be explained in the end.

Thanks for reading.  We'll have some more fun stuff soon, I promise!  (wiring is not fun).