Day Forty-Two

I worked with Larry J. on his interface program, we were hung up so long on how to get the text output to not flicker or scroll. Eric F. had to give us the clue we needed to fix that. Also the previous problems we were having on Day 41 was due to a damage crystals on the board we were using. Hopefully we make good progress on Day 43 for me to be able to post something regarding that!

Day Forty-One

Today Larry and I started writing a program that would allow for push button control of each servo. One button for the servo number and then in conjunction with that, specifically while the aforesaid button is pressed down, either the forward or reverse button. At the moment, we are just trying to get it to display strings when both buttons are pushed together. When we have a whole, albeit basic, program written, I'll post that.

Day Forty

Not much done. I assisted Dave H. with his program. Specifically with syntax and program flow. As it is not my program, I do not have a copy of it to post. The purpose of the program was kinda lost on me also. He just asked me what he needed to write to perform this or that action, and I responded.

Day Thirty-Nine

Connected the new wires I needed to make. Plugged in the additional encoders. I just had to add outputs from the newly added encoders into my program. It worked perfectly. (Though it did take about 40 minutes to get the wiring for the breaks to be disabled/powered at the same time, ugh) Now I am able to read direction and amount of movement from all 5 encoders at one time, as well as, being able to disengage all 4 breaks at once so the arm can do whatever it is we want it to do! As my end of the week project is now completed, I shall help Dave and Larry with their programming of the MMBEs.

Day Thirty-Eight

I need new wires to connect the other encoders, via the umbilical terminal to my microcontroller. The existing wires are all breaking down. So I made new wires today. Not terribly productive towards the end project but will help me get to this week's end goal of being able to read from all 5 encoders at once as well as being able to release all 4 breaks at once. 

Making new wires, hand crimping on new male and female ends... VERY time consuming. 

Day Thirty-Seven

Had a meeting as to what to do this week. I am to continue on my Encoder project and assist others in interfacing with what has been labeled, for better or worse, as my encoders. I'll start by wiring the brakes into one line, then connect the umbilical to the parallax microcontroller. THEN, I'll start inputting a repeat of my original program, which i posted a week or 2 ago, to run and track 2-5 encoders at once. I'll be adding 1 encoder at a time. Getting the 2nd encoder to work with the first in the existing program is going to be tough. Encoders 3-5 will be easy after I learn how to put in the 2nd encoder.

Day Thirty-Six

Today I was called off from my encoder work to help the other group integrate my encoder programming with their MMBE (Motor Mind B-enhanced) program. Purpose was to see if the MMBE could take the encoder input and give a processed output. No such luck. They were all working still on relearning to write in SPIN and making an interface program to work between the computer and the MMBE. So, I just spent the day reminding and advising Dave H. and Larry J. regarding their SPIN programs. I offered to Eric F. but he likes doing all his programming alone. Even though I had solutions to his frustrations. Oh well. It was a wasted day for me, but it helped the others progress in our project.