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We plan, we fail, and move along
No excuses. Last minute changes caused last minute problems that we were unable to overcome. Although we were at the race, the vehicle’s GPS was flakey and being knocked out continuously even in open sky. The problem was discovered on Wednesday before the race. Lack of time failed to get it resolved before we arrived and I pulled the plug much to Floyd’s chagrin, I’m sure.
SparkFun posted a race recap. Maybe next time. From the stats, it appears were were not the only team with an issue or three. Maybe next year.
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Sorry you guys had a rough time – hopefully you come back even stronger next year.
I’m building a platform similar to yours for the SRS Robothon up in Seattle, and I’m looking at different options for wheel encoders. Would you mind doing a post describing your approach?
Michael,
The blog is pretty much kaput but I’ll tell you what we did. We bought an encoder from US Digital (http://usdcom.com/products/encoders/incremental/rotary/shaft/s4/) the particular model was S4-100-125-8-D. It was then attached to the output of the motor shaft with a mini-shaft coupler (http://www.servocity.com/html/rigid_shaft_couplers.html).
Direct attachment to the motor has issues. Namely, if you are on a slope and the vehicle rolls, you have no idea it is in motion because the motor is stopped but the vehicle can still roll. To accommodate that possibility we tightened the clutch as much as possible but rolling can still happen. You also do not get any idea if you are slipping. Not a major problem on a platform of this scale.
Hope that helps.