This week, we finished the construction and mounting of the reloading mechanism, made a phone mount so that we can use a phone as a video camera, and re-printed some parts that broke (the launchpad and the launch bearing mount). We slightly changed the designs of these parts so that they won't break as easily again. We also added features to the launch pad so that the bean bag more consistently slides into place when being reloaded.
New Launchpad (black) and Launch Bearing Mount (white).
Mounted Reload System.
Phone mount for video feedback
Reload System in Action
We integrated our new high-current stepper motor driver into the system and verified that it is able to move two bean bags to reload the launcher, as shown in the video above.
We added an option to switch between slow and fast driving modes, improved our switch debouncing system, and implemented a single-stick drive method to make steering the vehicle easier while driving.
We tested the full integrated system this week and verified that we can drive, shoot, and reload a beanbag. We also tested driving via camera feed.
We originally found issues with our switch debouncing method where the switch would still trigger interrupts and cause our program to act erratically. We were able to fix the problem by simply waiting a few milliseconds before reading the value on the pin.
Next week we will keep practicing before the seeding competition. We will also mount the bean bag sensor switch and verify its functionality with the rest of our code.