Final Project Journal

Project Ideation

1- Tell us about the idea of your project. Why do you care about this? What were you inspired by? Include images and videos of similar projects

Excavator RC Car 


It’s a small-scale self-driving car that uses an Arduino-Uno, I work in a non-profit organization, and therefore I will seek to establish partnerships with a charitable organization to adopt a project to teach robotics and artificial intelligence and to spread the culture of industrial design and programming among young people in disadvantaged areas in Egypt, in order to influence their lives positively. 

I believe that the implementation of a hybrid RC car project with a lifting arm will be an opportunity to understand the basics of robotics and embedded systems, as well as the possibility of implementing ideas for pioneering projects and making prototypes, headed by RC car and other projects, which will be a source of inspiration for economic empowerment projects and Developing youth skills for the labor market, self-employment and remote work in various fields of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Project Construction

2- Explain the CAD process of your project. How did you use the software to design your project? (List the softwares/tools/materials...etc that you used)

The Design Processes

RC Car Chassis Design Sketch (2D)

Extruding RC Car Chassis

Installing the  motors under 

the chassis by the joints

Installing the 4 motors under 

the chassis by the joints

Installing the H-bridge on the surface of the chassis by the joints

fillet the edges of RC car Chassis and Installing 2 H-bridge , Breadboard, and Arduino-Uno on the surface of the chassis by the joints

Offseting  the edges of RC Car chassis

Extruding the edges to make inclusion

Creating circles on 3D printed inclusion for installing captive nuts and RGB led (3.2 mm for Captive nuts and 5.2 mm for RGB led)  

Inclusion Splitting Body for 3D printed Parts 

3- Explain the fabrication process of your project. How did you use the machine to fabricate your project? (List the softwares/tools/materials...etc that you used)

Multi-Maker CURA

RD Works V8 for laser cutting Machine

WhatsApp Video 2023-03-25 at 8.26.29 PM.mp4

3D Printed Parts Video

Preparation for Laser cutting Machine

3D Printer Machine

Printed 3D printed on 

the 3D Printer Machine

3D Printed Parts

Captive Nuts 

Software

Materials 

Fabrication Processes


    Cut  (Black)  Speed 30 ,  Power 65


Resolution 0.3 mm

Time : 6 hours 48 mins

PLA : 109 grams

Infill 20% 

Layer Height : 3 mm

Project Electronics & Power Management 

4- Describe your electronic circuit. What are the input and action components? What is the function of each? How do the components integrate together to form your smart system? (List the softwares/tools/components...etc that you used)

Pin 2 = green led - at the right side

Pin 3 = red led -at the right side

Pin 4= green led -at the left side

Pin 5 = red led  -at the left side

Pin 6= motor11  - Right front motor (Clockwise direction)

Pin 7= motor12 - Right front motor (Counter clockwise direction)

Pin 8= motor21 - Left front motor (Clockwise direction)

Pin 9 = motor22 - Left front motor (Counter clockwise direction)

Pin 10 =  motor31 - Right rear motor (Clockwise direction)

Pin 11 =  motor32 - Right rear motor (Counter clockwise direction)

Pin 12 = motor41 - Left rear motor (Clockwise direction)

Pin 13 = motor42 - Left rear motor (Counter clockwise direction)

Pin A3= Buzzer

Input

Action

Software

Tools

Material 


Wires (Male- Male/ Male- Female/ Female-Female)

Simulation Circuit on Fritzing

Arduino-Uno

Arduino Blue control (Mobile App.)

Buzzer

Fritzing Software

IDE Arduino Software

Fusion 360 software

Multi Maker CURA

Crocodile Wires 

DC Motors

Motor Driver 

(H-Bridge)

RD Works Software 

Wood (3mm)

PLA

RGB Led

Resistor 220 Ohms

Small Breadboard

Bluetooth Module

5- What is your power source? How did you select the suitable power source for your project? (List the softwares/tools/components...etc that you used)


A 5 volt power bank was used as the power source for all components of the RC Car, where the Power bank is connected to the Arduino board, where the Arduino board feeds the rest of the RC Car parts, including 2 RGB LED bulbs, as well as feeding 2 motor drivers ( H-bridge) which in turn feeds DC 4 motor with power 

Power Bank 5 v

Project Programming

6- Describe the code of your project. How did you program each function of the project?  

Line 1 to 20 (Coding)

Line 21 to 40 (Coding)

Line 41 to 60 (Coding)

Line 61 to 80 (Coding)

Line 81 to 100 (Coding)

Line 100 to 121 (Coding)

Software


The coding relied on defining the components of the RC Car, whether inputs or outputs, and a variable named incoming Data was defined to store the value entered from the PCB Way remote control software. The if function and the if else function were used, so that this includes several cases, namely 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, or 8, in order to achieve the outputs that he set according to the Pseudo Code above.


I used the electrical resistors of 220 ohms, as well as 1 kilo ohm resistors, which helped me control the size of the voltage inside the circuit, as well as the use of the Motor Driver, which helped me control the DC motor(H-bridge), and through Arduino I downloaded the code for controlling the RC Car circuit, and by completing the pairing process between the Bluetooth unit and ( PCB Way )software, this helped me control the RC Car circuit.



Describing the code



At the first of the loop function the Arduino reads incoming data coming from Bluetooth, so if I choose button 1, the 2 RGB Led lighting color are converted to green. The 4 DC motors are operated clockwise to make RC car Moving Forward



So if I choose button 2,Through it, the 2 RGB Led lighting color are converted to red. The 4 motors are driven in a counter clockwise direction to make RC car Moving backwards



So if I choose button 3, Changing the right RGB lighting to green and switching off the left one, The front right motor is turned off, and the rest of the three motors move forward in a clockwise direction to make RC car Moving to the right side.



So if I choose button 4,Changing the left RGB lighting to green and switching off the right one, The left front motor is turned off, and the rest of the three motors move forward in a clockwise direction to make RC car Moving to the left side.



So if I choose button 7 or 8, Turn off all of the above outputs.

Project Integration & Testing 

7- Demonstrate with text and visuals how did you integrate the project’s modules together? What are the testing results? (Include a Demo video separately, showing a proof of functionality)

3D Printed Parts 

Compilation of 2D and 3D parts 

and grouping them together

3D printed parts 

Installing DC motors and wheels on the RC chassis

Connecting DC motors to the H-Bridge

Installing components on the RC car chassis


Installing components on the RC car chassis

IMG_0040.MOV

The 3D printed part was installed on the wooden chassis, completing the car's Inclusion shape,and the 2 RGB LEDs were installed on the 3d printed part, and they were connected with wires to the Arduino Pins, so that the number of pins used to turn on the red and green lights are 2 pins, with a total of 4 pins on the Arduino

The four motors were installed on the wooden chassis of the RC car so that they are in an opposite position as shown in the picture, then connect each 2 DC motors to the H-Bridge unit, then connect 4 wires from the H-bridge to the Pins on the Arduino-Uno, for a total The number of pins allocated to the four motors is 8 Pins. This is done by controlling the direction of rotation of the motors, whether clockwise or counterclockwise, in order to obtain the required RC Car movements, for example when desired:

1- RC car Moving Forward

 The 4 motors are operated counterclockwise

2- RC car Moving backwards

The 4 motors are driven in a clockwise direction

3- RC car Moving to the Right


 the front right motor is turned off, and the rest of the three motors move forward in a counterclockwise direction.

4- RC car Moving to the Left


 the left front motor is turned off, and the rest of the three motors move forward in a clockwise direction.



Sharing & Collaboration 

8- Did you ask for feedback? What are the ideas that others have contributed or suggested? What was someone else’s idea that you built upon? How did you help your peers? How did your peers help you?

One of my colleagues in the Maker Diploma scholarship suggested to me that I adjust the movement of the RC car, with regard to the movement of the car to the right and to the left, by relying on the rear traction rule found in most used passenger cars, where the two rear motors will be turned on to move forward in case The movement of the car to the right or to the left, taking into account the operation of the left front motor in the case of moving to the right and the right front motor stopped moving to give the car a smooth movement to the right, and the same thing with regard to the movement of the car to the left, the left front motor is stopped with the operation of the motor right anterior.

- I also helped 2 of my colleagues in the scholarship, one of whom I helped suggest downloading a library of code for his project, and the second colleague had a project similar to mine this is in regards to the movement part.



Overcoming Challenges 

9- When you got stuck, what/who did you turn to? At what point did you have to pause to research or learn more before moving on? What are some mistakes, pitfalls, or challenges that others can avoid if they were doing this project?

The main challenge that I faced is that when I tried to make Slicing to print the Inclssion, which is the 3D printed part in the RC Car, I discovered that the dimensions of the car could not be printed once on the 3D Printer machine, where I found that I could not even do Slicing On the Cura program, therefore, I divided the Inclusion on the Fusion 360 program using the Split body feature, which enabled me to print the front and back parts of the Inclusion. As for the rest of the Inclusion, spacers were used, due to avoiding the consumption of more PLA filament in order to Rationalization of consumption of raw materials


Unable to Slice 


Before overcoming the challenge


Spliting Chasing body into( V1,V2, V3, V4)


Spliting body


After overcoming the challenge

Future Work

10- If you had more time, what is one thing you would change/ Do next in your project?

If I have enough time, I will complete the second part of the project, which is the part related to the Excavator, where I will add 4 DC motors, 3 of them to control the crane and the fourth string to control the rotational movement of the crane body to move in all directions at an angle of 360 degrees, and I will also put flexible pipes And hollow in the body of the crane to control the hydraulic crane


 Final Project Design Files