Week 17 (Feb. 6, 2019): Continuing Spartan Superway, Final Round

Today was our first official Superway session following the move out of the old warehouse, our return from Winter Break, and the start of the 2^nd semester of senior project. We had our first SPARTAN-Superway meeting as a whole class; Dr. Furman and Ron debriefed us on the updates since last semester, amenities of the new facility, and the ultimate goal of the project upon the conclusion of this semester.

Following our meeting, the class broke off into our three main teams (Full-Scale, Half-Scale, and Small-Scale). Our Small-Scale Team reconvened and set up a general shape and overall layout of the small-scale track, consisting of the cement posts and the rails. We also sifted through most of the boxes throughout the facility to collect and organize all of our equipment.

For the Small-Scale Controls Team, we recapped (and slightly readjusted) our plan for the first few weeks of the semester leading up to Presentation #1 on February 27.

Ensure induction charger works (Completed)
Make barebone circuit, including everything except the current amplifier. We would then show our prototype circuit to Dr. Furman and ask for some assistance with the SMT current amplifier.
Implement revised Python code for GUI.
Ensure successful Serial communication between the Arduino XBee and Raspberry Pi XBee.

Real-time location of each pod car
Distance between passenger pick-up location and closest pod car
Distance between passenger pick-up location and passenger drop-off location

Over the Winter Break, I received: (1) the 12V, 600mA induction charger, (2) the LiPo mini-charger, and (3) a 3.7V LiPo battery. I ensured that they all do work by making a prototype of our circuit final: 5V power supply -> induction transmitter -> induction receiver -> LiPo mini-charger + 3.7V LiPo -> 12V [brushed] DC motor.

To recapitulate and clarify, the induction charger will be used to charge the LiPo battery.

I did not receive the 5V, 2A charger (our backup) until recently, so I still have to test it out. I would like this induction charger to work, so that we can charge the LiPo battery at a respectable 2A.

Running the 12V DC motor with the 3.7V LiPo battery made it rotate very quickly. So, we might end up simply using a 3.7V battery, as opposed to the larger 7.4V battery. However, we will have to use a smaller PWM value to tone down the speed, as we do not want the pod car to be running too fast.

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Week 29 (May 1, 2019): CAD of Induction Charger Hub & Podcar Door, then 3D Printing

This week, while David worked on the Raspberry Pi and the Arduino code, Patrick completed the CAD (computer-aided-design) models. We had to create 3D solid modeling of two parts: the induction charging hub to hold the induction transmitter coil and the pod car door to hold the induction receiver coil. Over the weeks, the CAD models underwent several revisions. The induction hub saw two revisions, with the third design being the final version. Because the 3D printer available to us in the shop, the Prusa Mark3 i2, had a bed length of 10 inches, we had to restrict the length of the charging hub to a safe 9.5 inches. Version 1 simply entailed us placing the hub on the side of the bracket and then screwing it into place on the bracket’s side via the two holes at the top: For version 2, in addition to placing the hub on the side of the bracket and then screwing it into place on the bracket’s side via the two holes at the top, the bracket would wrap around the two bracket...

Week 30 (May 8, 2019): Prototype Evaluation Day, Final Circuit, Incorporating 3D printed parts, Final Presentation, Posters, & Maker Faire

Today, we held Prototype Evaluation Day. Like the rest of the senior project classes, the advisor walks around the classroom, evaluating the senior project apparatuses, asking the student teams to demonstrate their devices, and explain their design, though processes, and results. Dr. Furman and Ron examined and inspected the Full-Scale model, then the Half-Scale model, and lastly, us, the Small-Scale Team. We had completed our circuit to power one pod car and one of the two induction charging stations prior to Evaluation Day, so we were able to successfully demonstrate the pod car driving around the track as well as the induction charging. While we were still troubleshooting issues with the tablet’s Raspberry Pi communicating with the Arduino, the Arduino is still capable of operating on its own, so we could at least demonstrate the motor driving the pod car around the track and through the offline stations. Depicted below is our final circuit that powers the pod car: Dep...

Week 26 (Apr. 10, 2019): Programming – Python and Arduino Communication

The Python code and the Arduino code are able to run successfully on their respective boards, i.e. the Raspberry Pi in the tablet and the Arduino in the pod car. However, the Raspberry Pi is having issues sending data to the Arduino via the XBee RF (radio-frequency) module, specifically the user-input data. Whenever the user inputs the pickup station, destination, and selects a pod car, the Serial Monitor on the Arduino IDE does not show any of the data. Investigating further, we plugged the XBee module into one of our laptops, then opened the XCTU software’s (the software which deals with RF modules) Serial port as well. Now, whenever the user inputs the stations, we can see on the XCTU Serial Monitor that the receiving XBee does get the pickup station, destination, and pod car number, but the three inputs are all found between jumbles of random characters. As displayed in the screenshot of the XCTU software below, if the user inputs pickup station 2, destination station 5, and sele...

Patrick Barrera's Progress for Spartan Superway

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