My name is John and I am a rising freshmen in Scotch Plains High school attending Bluestamp in NYC, and during my time at camp I have built my starter project and my main project. My starter project was the electronic dice and the reason I chose this was because I thought it would be a fun project to attempt and I could also use it in other games. For my main project I chose the hex bug because I thought it would be something cool to build with it being able to follow the line and have it go wherever I wanted it to go.
For my second and last milestone I was able to get the robot fully functional and it is able to follow a white line with its line sensor based on the code put into it. I attached all the hardware to it so and added the codding, but in between it all I experienced difficulties. During the process I had to replace all my main parts because I should have been more careful, I broke three hex bug spiders which was unfortunate, but in time I realized that the motors of these hex bugs are extremely fragile. I also broke the line sensor by burning the Ir emitter off, and broke the arduino by burning out the voltage regulator, but in the end I was able to get everything together and in working condition.
Hexbug Model – Hexbug model showing what is put where
Hexbug Code – Hexbug code to make it follow a white line
Bill of Materials – Parts needed for the project
My main project was the line following HexBug Spider, and for my first milestone I put together all the hardware. I soldered the four wires to the two motors, making sure to have the same color for positives and same for ground but different colors for both. Then I soldered jumper wires to the line sensor in order for it to have flexibility and in order for it to connect to the arduino. The way the line sensor works is that when it is powered through the 5 volt pin, and has an analog out that releases the values between 0 – 1018. if it hits a white line it gives a lower value, but if it senses a black line it gives a higher value. I set my robot to walk if it gets readings below 750 and turn to find the line if it is above 750. Then I tested the connections to a bread board, so that I don’t go forward to find that the connections are off. I also added my own thinking to it by adding a switch, so that I would be able to turn it off and on.
This is how the spider looks when it is opened up.
My starter Project was the electronic dice which is able to act as a regular dice giving numbers 1-6.
This is what the final dice should look like.
While working on this kit, I made some errors including major ones, for example I realized after soldering 4 out of the 7 LED’s I realized that they were o the wrong side. When I tried to take them out I got 3 of the four but I lost the last LED in the process. I learned from this is that I should take my time and think about what I am going to do before I do it. This way the is less room for errors, and better chance of success. I found a solution by putting in a new LED that was the same color, but I could not find one with the same size and color so I chose to use the LED with the same color, but not the same size. In the link below I explain how the dice works and shows it working.