THE END

The semester is ending and therefore, so is the team's attempt at the Jolt Car. As the project wraps up, the car is shall we say, less than complete. We got a little too motivated for the time that we had set aside! BUT, the end product moves and that's the most important part of a car. The team was attempting to attach two stepper motors and an arduino board to the two axles beneath the car. Then the idea was to put some IR sensors on and write a little code that would have made the car remote controllable. The end result we had though was simply just the frame of the car with the axles and wheels attached. Building the gearbox become our first main challenge as we lacked the tools to create one around the motors. Had we more time, we could have acquired them to make a finished product. After that would have come writing the code and our challenge as a team at that point would have been writing it in such a way that the code could have controlled the motors separately but simultaneously. The really ambitious aspect of the Jolt Car was the cannon though! The team attempted several starts on the cannon with drilling holes in multiple places on PVC piping. We tried a rubber band/sling shot type and we tried a pin release/spring method to make it fire-able. It came down to time however, and the team had to focus on the frame to get the car, at the very least, moving.

We are all proud of our teammates and we had a lot of fun creating the Jolt Car. Maybe in the future this prototype will receive some extra attention and get some add-ons. For now, the team is going home for the holidays!

This code is for a remote controlled car that we found on the internet and are going to put into our Arduino boards so our remote controlled car can work in a similar fashion.  In addition to driving, the code also allows for a cannon to fire which will be utilized for our top mounted cannon on the JoltCar.  The only difference is we intend on using two Arduino boards so the car and the cannon are controlled independently, because of this we will need to alter the code to fit our needs.


#include Servo.h

int LedPin1 = 12;
int LedPin = 13;
int MotorPin1 = 9;
int MotorPin2 = 10;
int servoPin = 6;

Servo VishalServo;

void setup()
{
digitalWrite(LedPin, HIGH);
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.println(Robotic tank);
pinMode(LedPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(LedPin1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(MotorPin1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(MotorPin2, OUTPUT);
VishalServo.attach(servoPin);
VishalServo.writeMicroseconds(1500);
Serial.println(Wait for 1 second);
delay(1000);
Serial.println(You can now give commands);
}

void loop()
{
while (Serial.available() == 0);
int val = Serial.read() - '0';

int i = VishalServo.read();

if (val == 2)
{
Serial.println(Robot is On);
digitalWrite(MotorPin1, HIGH);
digitalWrite(MotorPin2, HIGH);
delay (500);
digitalWrite(MotorPin1, LOW);
digitalWrite(MotorPin2, LOW);
delay(5);
}

if (val == 1)
{
Serial.println(Robot is turning left);
digitalWrite(MotorPin2, HIGH);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(MotorPin2, LOW);
delay(5);
}

if (val == 3)
{
Serial.println(Robot is turning right);
digitalWrite(MotorPin1, HIGH);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(MotorPin1, LOW);
delay(5);
}

if (val == 9)
{
Serial.println(Turning right);
VishalServo.write(i+5);
delay(5);
}

if (val == 7)
{
Serial.println(Turning left);

if (i = 165)
{
delay(5);
}

if(i = 165)
{
VishalServo.write(i-5);
delay(5);
}
}

if (val == 5)
{
Serial.println(Shoot);
digitalWrite(LedPin1, HIGH);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(LedPin1, LOW);
delay(5);
}

if (val == 8)
{
Serial.println(Centering);
VishalServo.writeMicroseconds(1500);
delay(5);
}

else
{
delay(5);
}

}

Presentation Powerpoint

This is a power point presentation made by our group that goes over various elements of the prototype of the JoltCar, the finished JoltCar, and some impacts this project could have on the world.

Wheels Up

It worked! The chassis the team was trying to build was a little too complicated for the time we had allotted. Live and learn. However, we were able to create a working axis with wheels! No motor attached yet and we still need to drop the arduino board into the base of the car, but it's coming further along everyday.

Making it Prettier

So the pegboard we cut was nice, but just so BLAH. So the team decided to add some color (and way more sturdiness) by making our own pegboard in SolidWorks, and having it 2D lazer cut out of green acrylic.                                            

Quint approves.

Jolt Car frame re-coming together.

Builders

The team met up and went shopping! We stopped by Lowe's this morning and got some supplies. Nails, Velcro, springs, PVC pipe, pegboard, and some wooden stakes. Taking the measurements we had previously discussed for the frame of the Jolt Car, we had the pegboard, stakes, and PVC cut down to a proper size.

The Velcro is ensure the arduino board doesn't move inside the finished frame of the car. The PVC pipe and spring is for the cannon that will be attached to the car as well. The frame is built out of the rest of the materials. The team also visited a hobby shop today as well, where we picked up tires and axles for the wheels of the car. (The chassis is not finished yet, so no sneak peeks!).

While trying to figure out a way to put the top and bottom half of the frame together, the group decided to make attached brackets. We made a quick model on Solid Works, pictured below, and had several cut out of green acrylic.

We worked to finish as much as we could on the frame before our classes. Still a work in progress, but the Jolt Car is well on it's way!

Solid Works

This is the frame and individual pieces for the Jolt Car created in Solid Works. Originally, the team wanted all these parts 3D printed. However, it occurred to us that this frame would be way to big given the size of the printer we were utilizing. We also thought of using scrap metal or acquiring a sheet of metal to 2D cut. Again, the laser cutting would have been too much cutting through metal. Ultimately, we decided on a more "organic" option. Here are the parts if you're curious.  Again, these are simply frame pieces.

 

Links to part files:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_AHxFzCOCzATm9IOVpqTmFVWjg/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_AHxFzCOCzAQ3dzcGM3cGtaMEU/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_AHxFzCOCzAREZGNXBGVnpsVzg/view?usp=sharing