Final Project Progress Update #1

I seetled on my idea pretty early on, but it definitely devolved as I actually began working on the project. I was focusing too much on aesthetics and not enough on how exactly I’m going to make this work.

For now I’m focusing on what motors to get and how to make sure they’re strong enough.

---

I have finally received my motors and all that goes with them, the motor drivers and metal holders in the mail. The project is due in around 3 weeks, which is not the ideal. It took me a while to decide on a motor and the ones I originally wanted were sold out when I went to purchase them.

I settled on a DC motor that is 30rpm and 12V. It’s a tough tiny motor and I’m happy the metal attachments where power and ground are connected are not flimsy.

The motor driver came with the pins unattached, so I have to solder them at the next available opportunity in the lab, which will probably be during class tomorrow.

---

I did in fact solder the motor drivers during class, and it was surprisingly easier than I expected.

We also went over how to attach them. Under the product listing on Pololu, there is a details section where it shows how to wire the motor drivers.

I forgot what GPIO meant but it means general purpose input/output pin which is most of the pins on the arduino.

Wiring it was not very difficult, but finding the shifts in current when the motors turned was difficult.

I will probably have to spend quite some time figuring out how to filter out the spikes in current when the motor changes direction in order to find the highest current, so that it can change direction without destroying the rag/itself.

---

As for the cubes attached to the motor shaft, these took a while. I had to learn how to use the cold saw and the metal drill press. I also had to learn how to use a tap and die kit. I ran into some issues with the tap and die kit because even though we had a whole demonstration in class I used the wrong drill size (I forgot to switch it from the motor shaft hole drill) and had to redo it.

Actually making the threaded holes was dreadful. Not a fan. It took me entirely too long just to make two threaded holes for the set screw, I even had to go back through and make sure I got entirely through the hole because the set screws weren’t going all the way to the motor shaft on my first try.