3/19/2014

   This week feels like one of the least productive weeks so fare. I was working on getting the LCD working and was hoping to be done early in the week, but at this point I still haven't been able to find a library that works with it. I have asked a few other students for advice, and they've all been very willing to help, but no one has the same one as I do so I haven't been able to apply the procedures to get mine to work. I did take some time off from working on the LCD and try and work with the metal detector circuit only to find out with some in depth research that the circuit I bought is more of a touch sensor that metal objects will have to come in contact with to activate. I don't have it fully functional yet because there is not much information on this specific technology online right now, so I plan on developing my own research though some trial and error, in the up coming week.

3/12/2014

  This week I perfected my collision avoidance, but now I am having some trouble getting my LCD screen to printout. It's the I2C that is supposed to be making things easier that is giving me trouble. I'm sure I will like it once I get it going but right now it is tough, there is a step in setting it up where I have to scan my Arduino to find the I2C device but it isn't able to find anything. I'm hoping to get this out of the way in the next week and get started on the metal detection.

3/5/2014

   This week I got the collision avoidance to work, but there are still a few bugs to workout. The robot drives forward and when it comes across an obstacle it turns, but it turns farther than it needs to so it ends up going in a random direction. I finally received the LCD display so I plan on getting that hooked up in the coming week and hope that it will make tweaking the collision avoidance.

2/26/2014

   This week I worked on finishing mounting all of the electronics and ran into a few problems. One of the first was with the H bridge motor controller, but once I talked to a few of the other students I realised I was hooking it up wrong and now it is working correctly. Another problem I had was with the shipping of the metal detector. It took 20 days for the package to arrive and when it got to my house I opened it to find only the receipt inside and no circuit. I contacted the shipper and they said that they are aware and have already addressed the problem by reshipping the item and I did get the item two days later, so the crisis was averted. Right now I'm semi stuck on getting the getting the pin picking arm to work properly. Next week I will finish up with the obstacle avoidance. I have the code done for it but I can't finish mounting the sonic detector until I finish the picker arm.

2/19/2014

   This week I've been working on getting all of the components mounted on the chassis. I have the motor drive control board mounted but it's taking me a little longer than I expected to get it to work. The first one that I looked at buying had a detailed diagram of the board and it's pin outs but the one I ended up buying is a little bit different so I'm having to put in a little bit more work to figure out how it works. I'm now having to weigh weather or not it was worth it to safe a few cents on this board that didn't come with as much set up support. I'm also still waiting to get the metal detector circuit that will be mounted on the pin picker arm. While I'm talking about things that aren't going right I should also mention that I thought I ordered 6" jumper wires when in fact they are only 3". I'm hoping to be able to buy some from another student.

2/12/2014

  This week I got most of the parts I ordered. There was one setback, I didn't pay for one of my orders, the LCD display, so now I have to wait another two weeks for it to come. I do have everything I need to get started so I have the chassis assembled but the power source that came with it seems to not provide enough power so I'm going to have to work on getting something better.
  Next week I'm going to get 9volt batteries to power everything so I don't have to worry about not having enough voltage. I'm also going to try and work on the collision avoidance programing.

2/05/2014 Progress Update

   This week I was successful in purchasing the bump sensor and demonstrating it's functionality. I'm still waiting on a lot of the major parts to arrive in the mail. I did get an email from the shipper but it wasn't good news, they said that if I don't get the items on the expected arrival date that I should just wait a little bit longer. Next week I hope to have all the parts and begin assembly. I will also be working on the evidence programing while waiting for the parts.