Well, this week, we've ran into some problems. Rexnord screwed up my order the quantity needed of the tabletop chain. They sent me 5 ft when I really needed 50 ft. Now the tracks won't arrive until Halloween! Something is wrong with our Beaglebone. It won't boot off the eMMC so its booting off the SD card. It's incredibly slow too and this is the fastest possible SD card (Class 10). There is also an issue of loading the Ubuntu OS so we are running Angstrom and its a nightmare. We ordered a new Beaglebone so hopefully we can get Ubuntu loaded on and we can get going on configuring the B^3.
On the flipside, the Digikey order came. Lots of awesome components. I can't wait to get started on the electrical.
I was a bit worried about the contacts on the relay sticking so I order 24v 80a Bosch relays. They shouldn't stick now being that the motors only draw 40 amps each. And there is an internal LED that indicates when they're on!
Ben and I went down to Discount Steel to pick up the 1/4" thick aluminum plating (suspension and wheel carriers) and 1/8" thick for the front plating. I couldn't have been more pleased with their customer service. They helped us find what we needed and were very courteous. Much better than other steelyards I've been to... I cut and drilled the aluminum front plating using a jigsaw. Worked very well. I am going to have the suspension and wheel carriers plasma cut at Checker because, well, (1) there are 16 pieces (2) they have sharp angles I can't cut with the jigsaw (3) every piece has to be accurate to the 1/16".
Goals for next week
Goals For Me
- Mount relays on plastic sheet √
- Cut area in side panels for speakers
- Prepare Solidworks drawing for plasma cutting (change holes on suspension piece to clearance holes)
- Return aluminum spacers and hardware √
- Order new aluminum spacers √
- Place Bolt Depot order and 1/2" ID (3/4") tubing at SpeedyMetals √
- Update 'Parts List' √
- Order fuse, fuse holder, and 100 amp HELLA switch √
- Grind down weldments on frame √
- Adjust plastic panels as needed
- Find correct motors to purchase (Currie Technologies 900w motor's specs are off, says 24v 900 watt but only draws 34a
24*34=816 watt @ 100% efficiency) and adjust CAD models as needed √
- Begin fabricating tracks √
Goals For Ben
- Get Ubuntu running √
- Place Sabertooth 2x60 order √
- Interface game controller on Ubuntu √
- Interface Pyton library √
- Start looking into motor control
- Control servos with gamepad
- Have a generic program initialize automatically at startup
Ben and I went down to Discount Steel to pick up the 1/4" thick aluminum plating (suspension and wheel carriers) and 1/8" thick for the front plating. I couldn't have been more pleased with their customer service. They helped us find what we needed and were very courteous. Much better than other steelyards I've been to... I cut and drilled the aluminum front plating using a jigsaw. Worked very well. I am going to have the suspension and wheel carriers plasma cut at Checker because, well, (1) there are 16 pieces (2) they have sharp angles I can't cut with the jigsaw (3) every piece has to be accurate to the 1/16".
Goals for next week
Goals For Me
- Mount relays on plastic sheet √
- Cut area in side panels for speakers
- Prepare Solidworks drawing for plasma cutting (change holes on suspension piece to clearance holes)
- Return aluminum spacers and hardware √
- Order new aluminum spacers √
- Place Bolt Depot order and 1/2" ID (3/4") tubing at SpeedyMetals √
- Update 'Parts List' √
- Order fuse, fuse holder, and 100 amp HELLA switch √
- Grind down weldments on frame √
- Adjust plastic panels as needed
- Find correct motors to purchase (Currie Technologies 900w motor's specs are off, says 24v 900 watt but only draws 34a
24*34=816 watt @ 100% efficiency) and adjust CAD models as needed √
- Begin fabricating tracks √
Goals For Ben
- Get Ubuntu running √
- Place Sabertooth 2x60 order √
- Interface game controller on Ubuntu √
- Interface Pyton library √
- Start looking into motor control
- Control servos with gamepad
- Have a generic program initialize automatically at startup