Kyle B.

Hi, I’m Kyle and I am a rising junior at Scarsdale High School. For my main project I am building the RC Robot Tank based on the information provided on this website. I choose this project because I wanted to explore and learn more about Arduino’s, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering.

Engineer

Kyle B.

Area of Interest

Undecided

School

Scarsdale High School

Grade

Incoming Junior

Final Project

Final Milestone Video

My project is the RC Robot Tank. This project is a remote controlled tank that can move forwards, backwards, and swing the wooden device on the front of the tank side-to-side. The modification I added to my tank was the mini servo on top of the gearbox on the tank. The servo can rotate anywhere from 0 degrees to 180 degrees. In my code I set up my servo up so that it would rotate 90 degrees when I hit the circle button on my PS2 controller. I also added lines of code so that it would rotate back to zero degrees when I hit the triangle button on the controller. This is my final milestone and it is important to my project because of how everything is now functioning and working on my tank. Everything is connected together by the Arduino board and everything works together. I can control the tank effectively with the PS2 controller.

One of the issues I ran into while working on this milestone was getting the servo to work effectively. Originally my code was complicated and it sent too many instructions to the servo in a small time frame. This resulted in my servo not responding to the PS2 controller or the servo having more rotations than desired. I was able to fix this issue by simplifying my code and by removing some of the lines of code. Through working on this milestone I learned how to work with servos. I learned how servos work and how to set them up in my code.

Schematic:

Materials:

  1. Tamiya Double Gearbox L/R Independ 4-speed TAM70168
  2. Tamiya Track and Wheel Set TAM70100
  3. Tamiya Universal Plate TAM70098
  4. Arduino UNO board
  5. Motor Shield for Arduino
  6. Breadboard jumper wire 75pcs pack
  7. Logitech PlayStation 2 Cordless Action Controller
  8. 4 x 1.5V AA Battery Case Holder
  9. Nylon Spacers and Screws (for mounting Uno to chassis)
  10. Servo
  11. Zipties
  12. Wood

Source: https://paulbleisch.com/2013/01/03/simple-remote-controlled-arduino-tank/

Code Link: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/fd73071a8840f182d4a4eb5e89a7aa79#file-gistfile1-txt

Reflection

My favorite part at Bluestamp was the self-learning and self-discoveries involved while working on my project. I loved learning for myself and having to find my own solutions to the problems I encountered. I feel accomplished to have a finished and working project. I faced many challenges while working on this project. I had to learn how to code and understand the different lines of code I used for my project. I overcame this obstacle by researching what different commands mean in coding and by discovering how the code applies to my project. From working on my project I realized that I love mechanical engineering and it is something I would like to pursue in college and even after college.

Second Milestone

Second Milestone Video

My second milestone is connecting the tank with the arduino board. I connected the tank to the Arduino board by using wires that connected to the motor and the Arduino board. I also used code that I found online to set different values to the tanks motor so that when I hit a button on the PS2 controller the tank would move forward. The battery powers the entire system and so when I hit the L1 and R1 button on the PS2 controller it moves the motors, which moves the gears, which then moves the wheels. With the tank connected to the Arduino I will be able to control the tank with the PS2 controller.   In order to complete this milestone I had to learn and polish some skills. In order to physically connect the tank to the arduino board I had to solder on wires to the tanks motors which than connected to the arduino board. I had to also learn and understand the code I was using to setup the tank with the Arduino board. One issue I had during this milestone was soldering on the wires onto small holes on the motor. I resolved this issue by removing my tanks tracks to give myself more room to solder. My next milestone is connecting a servo to the tank with a small hammer on it. The purpose of the servo is to move the hammer up and down 90 degrees when I hit different buttons on the PS2 controller.

First Milestone

First Milestone Video

My project is the RC Robot Tank and my first milestone was uploading the PS2 controller code onto the Arduino. I needed to make sure that the PS2 controller connected and functioned with the Arduino board. I made sure the controller worked cohesively with the Arduino by using a Serial Monitor to make sure their was a connection between the controller and the Arduino and to check that the code functioned with the Arduino board. I found the code for the PS2 controller online and I used this code in my project. I edited the code to set the correct pins I was using on my Arduino board. This is important to my project because it makes sure that the Arduino board and the PS2 controller both work together. The Code was set up to allow me to control the tank with the PS2 controller, and to check the connection between the Arduino and the PS2 controller by using a serial monitor. In the code I used the “int” command to set up my pins for the Arduino board and to declare the different functions of each pin. I used the serial monitor on 56,000 baud to test the PS2 controller code with the Arduino. They both worked and when I hit a button on the PS2 controller, the corresponding part appeared on the serial monitor and stated that I just hit that button. Overall the code connects the PS2 controller to the Arduino board and shows that it works on a serial monitor. In order to complete this milestone I needed to learn how the code works and what the different lines of code mean. I also learned how to setup the Arduino board using the different pins and aligning them together and their functions together in the code. One issue I ran into while working on this project was that my Arduino board was busted and did not work. I fixed this issue by replacing the Arduino board with a different one. My next milestone will be the tank working together and functioning with the code.

Starter Project

For my starter project, I built the Minty Boost. The Minty Boost is a battery powered charger that allows you to charge any device that plugs into USB port. The Minty Boost has many components that allow it to work. The Minty Boost has a booster convertor which increases the voltage of the device it is powering while reducing the current. The Minty Boost uses its capacitors to maintain the voltage and hold an electrical charge in the device. Besides the different capacitors, the power conductor is also used by the chip to store voltage, but it also helps increase the voltage from a lower level to a higher level. The resistors are used to reduce current flow in the device. The two wires are used to transfer electricity from the batteries to the circuit board to allow the device to work. All of these components work together to power the Minty Boost. From working on this project I learned how to solder and how different components of a circuit board work. One of the issues I ran into while building this project was that one of the wires I soldered to the circuit board broke off. In order to fix this issue I had to desolder the area on the circuit board where this wire should be. After completing this step, I resolder the wire onto the circuit board.

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