We added an additional battery for the pump that clocks in at 11.10 V (even though it claims to be a lowly 9.6V) It delivers a steady stream of water.
Finished testing today. All systems are go!
David out
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
DUN done
We draw 110 mA according to my multimeter. 110 mA *h = 880 mAH < 1500 mAH for the battery. We're good. (Theoretical is 2100 mAH, but uses a lot of worst case calculations)
We decorated the duck and enabled the eyes. They are awesome.
There was an issue with shifting in just one time to the display, so now it does it every 600 mS based off of the 200 ms timer.
We turn off all the LEDs except the ship number at the end to indicate gameover.
We are considering adding a second battery for the pump because it is lame.
We had a full successful run, including pings during and after pairing, start game from admirals, stand down, base switching, and end game. The motors behaved as expected at all poitns.
TODO Tomorrow:
Check craft/helm pairing with others (We had successful control of the hot dog today)
Fix up pump
Take videos
Waterproofing
David out
We decorated the duck and enabled the eyes. They are awesome.
There was an issue with shifting in just one time to the display, so now it does it every 600 mS based off of the 200 ms timer.
We turn off all the LEDs except the ship number at the end to indicate gameover.
We are considering adding a second battery for the pump because it is lame.
We had a full successful run, including pings during and after pairing, start game from admirals, stand down, base switching, and end game. The motors behaved as expected at all poitns.
TODO Tomorrow:
Check craft/helm pairing with others (We had successful control of the hot dog today)
Fix up pump
Take videos
Waterproofing
David out
Readying for wet run
I saw some strange things this morning.
1. Motors and pump did not respond. This was due to a low voltage battery; problem disappeared when it was charged.
2. Display was not correct in 7 seg. At times, the team/goal LEDs did not turn on correctly. We knocked down the baud rate to the lowest setting and stopped updating every 200 ms. Now it just updates on standdown and goal change.
Tested all specials. The quack does not respond all the time. The packet sent is correct, but the timing on the PIC side needs tweaking. The pump and flagon seem to work just fine.
Next step: Power budget, wet run, waterproofing, LED eyes
David out
1. Motors and pump did not respond. This was due to a low voltage battery; problem disappeared when it was charged.
2. Display was not correct in 7 seg. At times, the team/goal LEDs did not turn on correctly. We knocked down the baud rate to the lowest setting and stopped updating every 200 ms. Now it just updates on standdown and goal change.
Tested all specials. The quack does not respond all the time. The packet sent is correct, but the timing on the PIC side needs tweaking. The pump and flagon seem to work just fine.
Next step: Power budget, wet run, waterproofing, LED eyes
David out
Endgame movements
Laurel and I completed the code and electronics for the LED and 7 segment displays today. The bitshift can occur at speeds up to the max of what the E128 can SSP out (25 Mhz/2) For some reason, we found that bits 4 and 7 had to be switched on the charts for the LED display. Quirk: if you call the ShowBoatNumber() function, you also have to update the team affiliation. I placed the refresh for every 200 ms and it is functionally stable, though the update rate is visible.
Benjie and I have hashed out a scheme where we are constantly reading the analog voltages from the drumsticks and use the average for speed every 200 ms. It works out quite nicely; we want the voltage for max speed to be (at the greatest!) about 500 (value from the analog voltage in)
New iButton check on the PIC works fine. Now it will reject 0x00 and 0x00 as well as 0xff and 0xff as successive valid reads
Karl was able to ping the Helm in its "looking for iButton state" and the Kraft in its "waiting to pair state." That seems solid.
Our helm construction is well on its way. We have tested out hardware for the quack switch (works!) but are still seeing the pump turn on at the start. I have implemented a pump timer which will call for water until 10 seconds after the user stops yelling. The pump code currently is not functional; nor is the duck release. Those are top priority tomorrow.
Agenda for tomorrow:
Fix pump and duck release
Integrate with drumsticks
Make power system more stable
Waterproof the duck
David out
Benjie and I have hashed out a scheme where we are constantly reading the analog voltages from the drumsticks and use the average for speed every 200 ms. It works out quite nicely; we want the voltage for max speed to be (at the greatest!) about 500 (value from the analog voltage in)
New iButton check on the PIC works fine. Now it will reject 0x00 and 0x00 as well as 0xff and 0xff as successive valid reads
Karl was able to ping the Helm in its "looking for iButton state" and the Kraft in its "waiting to pair state." That seems solid.
Our helm construction is well on its way. We have tested out hardware for the quack switch (works!) but are still seeing the pump turn on at the start. I have implemented a pump timer which will call for water until 10 seconds after the user stops yelling. The pump code currently is not functional; nor is the duck release. Those are top priority tomorrow.
Agenda for tomorrow:
Fix pump and duck release
Integrate with drumsticks
Make power system more stable
Waterproof the duck
David out
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Pins from lunchbox to backboard
GND 1
7 seg display: 9
TeamColor 2
ActiveBase 2
StandDown 1
ibutton 3(2?)
Mic 1
Tilt switch 1
BIGREDBUTTON1
Total 21
or (20) if we give up the ibutton led
Hooray molex. >_<
7 seg display: 9
TeamColor 2
ActiveBase 2
StandDown 1
ibutton 3(2?)
Mic 1
Tilt switch 1
BIGREDBUTTON1
Total 21
or (20) if we give up the ibutton led
Hooray molex. >_<
Monday, May 19, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Victory dance v 2.0
Now with more beer!
Smart PIC/Dumb PIC setup is working nicely. They both read the xBee transmission line and respond appropriately. Whoo!
We also fixed up the board for the Duck. The battery connection is much more solid now and we've improved the connection to the pump.
David added a better jumper on Blinkyn, so now he's more reliable. Blinkyn, not David.
We were seeing the pump turn on sometimes right on powerup. We think it's software (pulldown didn't help) but we're not sure. It's working now, but we don't expect it to stay that way. We commented out setup IO, iButton, xbee and clrf intcon and uncommented them one by one. Unfortunately, it worked in the end. Go figure.
Green tea mochi ice cream and Mission Street beer are up for grabs. Enjoy~!
~Laurel
Smart PIC/Dumb PIC setup is working nicely. They both read the xBee transmission line and respond appropriately. Whoo!
We also fixed up the board for the Duck. The battery connection is much more solid now and we've improved the connection to the pump.
David added a better jumper on Blinkyn, so now he's more reliable. Blinkyn, not David.
We were seeing the pump turn on sometimes right on powerup. We think it's software (pulldown didn't help) but we're not sure. It's working now, but we don't expect it to stay that way. We commented out setup IO, iButton, xbee and clrf intcon and uncommented them one by one. Unfortunately, it worked in the end. Go figure.
Green tea mochi ice cream and Mission Street beer are up for grabs. Enjoy~!
~Laurel
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