Activity 3.1.7 Machine Control Design part 1

What? Why?

Create a Delivery Vehicle Control system that can travel in a straight line back and forth. The system needs to be able controlled by input from a potentiometer and it must include a safety shut off if it travels to far in either direction. This is useful to transport various items from point a to point b.

My team members included David, Tom, Rafe, and Henry.

David programmed the Robo Pro Software.

Tom built the hardware.

Rafe, Henry, and I took screenshots, trouble shooted, and sketched some images.

I personally would give team MVP to Tom for basically putting the machine together from scratch including figuring out what inputs are supposed to go in.

We chose to tackle problem 3 as you might have guessed.

Sketches

We decided on a rail system for the motor. Using a gear box, the motor is able to crawl along the rail at a constant speed. Using the above pictures, we found that using picture1 we did not have an emergency stop. Picture 2 incorporates two switches that stop the cart when it reaches the end of the rail. The programing, while crude exhibits how the potentiometer controls the motor and how the switches end the program. These were later incorporated to the final design.

This program uses a logic tool to guide the motor. If a switch is pressed or not pressed in the case of the other switch, the program will stop the motor. If not, the motor continues. The potentiometer is connected to the program near the start and it loops indefinitely.

Conclusion
1. What was the most difficult part of the problem?

I believe that the potentiometer gave us the most issues. Programming was difficult and to make matters worse, our pot began to burn out a little from over amperage.

2. List and describe two features that were not part of the design problem that could be added to improve your design.
A) If we increased the length of the wire, we could run the wire along the bottom and hide a part of it to make it look cleaner.
B) The front switch was very ghetto and we could have placed it elsewhere. For example, adding more to our base to allow room for a stand to put the switch instead of attaching it to the "car" would look better.

OPT IN FACEBOOK

Question #1

Technologies that facilitated the regime change

1. Facebook
Facebook was created from a somewhat different thinking Harvard student. He created a social networking site to take all the hassle out of showing your friends how you spent your day. It allowed like minded protesters in Egypt to get together and consolidate ideas with out having to actually be in physical contact.

2. Google
Google was created by god-like programmers that decided to change the way people found information on the web. Using an intuitive program that quickly found information on the web allowed people to keep track on the protested.

3. Cell phones

Cell phones kept the protesters in communication for the duration of the protest with out having to use the internet. This allowed protesters to remain in contact for the whole event and coordinate their movements.


Question #2

Item one is a jacket with a hood. This would have been useful for protecting one against the elements. Since you would undoubtedly spend a large amount of time outdoors, you would need to guard yourself against the elements.

Item two is a pot lid. I don't know the exact use for one in this situation, so I can only speculate. I believe that one might have used it to protect oneself against possible thrown objects.

Item three is a pair of gloves. These are useful for keeping ones hands warm in a variety of situations and to keep your hands protected from harmful objects.

Item 4 is a spray paint can. Since this is a protest, various posters, signs and even graffiti would have been used. Since spray paint is very portable, it would have been useful to bring along.

Item 5 is a rose. Once again I have no idea what the exact use is, so I will speculate. I believe that the rose had a symbolism of some sort and that when people were walking by, the protesters would give said rose to them in some fashion.

Item 6 is a trash bag. I believe that it would be used to either carry ones belongings or to gather waste during the protest.

Item 7 is a pair of goggles. This was most definitely used to protect one's eyes. Whether from the sun or from protesting resistance is unknown.

Sub programs FOR THE WIN

The activity of today was to create a program that runs within another program. This is also known as a sub-program.

A benefit of using sub-programs is that it allows the main program to remain uncluttered. This allows you to identify any problems without a large cluster of commands.

The branch function with a defined variable

Today in class I set up a program that defines a variable as zero. Then it runs a loop that adds 1 to the variable as long as it is under 5 with a time delay of one second. After it reaches a value over than five, it will terminate itself.

activity 3.1.2 Flowcharting

1. Flowcharting is similar to a map route because it offers a very intuitive path based way to reach the end or the desired result. All you need to do is follow the directions of the flow charts.

2. A process that I do every morning is get up and get ready for school. Examine my beautifulness.

activity 3.1.1

5.1 unchecked
5.2 zero
5.3 no
6.1 checked
6.2 one
6.3 present
7. The switch switched its behavior
9. 43 to 5000
11. 5000
12. 1183
14. Switch the polarity of the motor
15.when the reed switch is on the magnet it triggers returning a 1
16. Normally closed
18. the light is closed
19. more light equals more resistance
20. set it as the opposite
21. no change necessary

1. The lines on the limit switch tell you which wire is normally closed or open
2. The reverse of pulse width modulation, its a voltage reader.
3. It increases as the Resistor gets warmer

Content is king

Q1. My hobby happens to be shredding on the guitar.

Q2. I don't really know any people that post their achievements in the guitaring industry in a blog, but I will see if I can find it.
3. I could really see myself blogging more about technical things that normal people might not understand like how physics of objects work, or maybe programming of some kind.