Day 6: Dec 2,  Prepped car for Work by cutting out hood, by drilling the supports. Keller did the same for his car. 

Day 9:  Dec 5,  put a larger drive shaft in the DC motor using a paper clip, initially tried to use a nail, then reused car axel. Both failed. Keller worked on the planning some more and came up with this diagram. 

Day 14:  Dec 12, We decided that we wanted a slider instead of just buttons so we could specifically choose the angle that we were turning. The video below demonstrates it.  Cooper Cumbus worked on moving a larger motor only forwards. Then I combined the code Cooper used and the code that I used to turn the servo into one combined code. This code allows you to separately control the direction the motor turns and which way the servo moves on the track.  He used a motor shield to connect and code the modern. For more information go to his DP.  

Keller: Keller was late to class because of a meeting and I taught him how to use certain features of the electronics and hardware. He worked on assembling the motor correctly again.    

Week 4: 16th-18th THE DARK TIMES

We worked with every other group doing the hotwheel RC car and split up the work evenly

Tyler Russell (me)

Servo code and electronics

Combining both motor codes to work on one joystick

Figured out the web server issue

Keller (my first partner)

Took apart small DC motors

Built Lego car body

Protoboard work

Andrew Puky

Made original steering module in Fusion360

Helped with Lego car body

Max Colcaco

Made Lego steering module

Luka

Soldered Protoboard

Helped with wiring

David

Helped with creating and accessing the web server

Helped with figuring out camera code

Collin

Connected the servo to the Lego steering module

Replaced the small dc motor with the larger one

Cooper Cumbus

Helped connect the motor to the ESP through the motor shield

Connected the ESPs to the Lippo batteries

Day 18: Dec 18, Started to clean up the car a little bit. Andrew built a proto board that I may use for version 2, organized up the wiring, and worked on my digital portfolio. 

Keller: Worked on DP 

I learned a great deal of things after completing this project. Before I barely understood a circuit and code not code for the life of me, now I can program an RC car. I learned how to create a web server and will be teaching others soon as well, I learned how to make a steering system, protoboard, organized to-do list, Gantt chart, bill of materials, research, code for servo and motor, and LED. I learned how to use a drill, build a support system, and cut out things that I needed. It's wild to me how much I can learn through such a small electronic car, but I believe this is just the first step of many that will lead me to where I want to go at this school and in life. I also learned things they can't teach in a book such as time management, documenting every day, communication, collaboration, negotiation, controlling my temper, and learning to let other people work. These were crucial in allowing me to complete this project on time and correctly. 

I had many problems whilst building this car. There were many times were the code was incorrect in some way because of a small error and I used Chat GPT and Cluade to identify the mistake and tell me how to fix it. The webserver would not work on the correct WiFi and we needed to take the gateway down for the WiFi. Then there was the small motor that just did not work with the longer axle in and we didn't have enough time to redesign the motor system on the back of the car. Also, battery packs were an issue because they were much too big for the very small cars we were using. We had to switch out the servo because a small 1.5-gram servo was not enough to move that whole steering mechanism. The breadboard was something of a disaster because of how messy and disorganized it was and it caused much confusion that resulted in small problems that slowed us down. Finally attaching the servo to the lego steering proved challenging because of how much hot glue was needed to keep this axle attached to the lego. And it kept breaking after a lot of extended use. 

This project was interesting, to say the least. I experienced a range of feelings from very sad depression to the highest of happy joys to wanting to strangle my partner a times. For the record, I do not blame anyone in my group in any way shape, or form. After these last few weeks, I know that everybody tried their best to get the work done. That means a lot to me and I hope everyone I worked with knows this. Specifically, my partner Keller and I had more than a couple of disagreements about how to proceed with this project from whose car to use, to people not doing what they should be, and fighting about dumb and useless things.  I resolve to become much better at communicating with my partner and learning what the other is doing. I also need to be more on top of documenting throughout the process and not just at the end. Finally, I must become much more organized in the future this will allow me to complete more projects much faster.   

This project was very challenging but luckily we were able to get a functioning model working. I would like to thank my friends Cooper, Andrew, Keller, Noah, Max, Collin, Luka, and David for their help. And I would also like to thank my teachers Mr. Dubik and Mr. Budzichowski with helping me understand how to create this amazing project. 

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