The Jesuit Robotics website is now under a new webmaster: Alan Luu! He will be working to update the site with new content and add new cool features. Alan is currently a senior and is in his 2nd year with the team. However, this is his first year as webmaster so welcome him!
The motor code for the brushed motors was completed today. Our code to qualify at Monterey was also created. It takes out lines of code that we do not need. We drilled holes in the horizontal rails of the robot to mount thrusters on. We cleaned an old electronics container in case we are not able to finish our new ones for Monterey. We laid out the hole patterns for the SubConns on the rear electronics container. The math for the vector drive was put into C#. We tested the brushed motor code and speed controller at 48V and it worked well. We tested another depth sensor for shallow depth. The back electronics container is finished and will be welded soon. We completed the mounts for the motors. The connection of the front and back cans was finished. We made a fuse to go in line with our batteries so we are always safe when testing. We tested our o-ring at a depth of 40 feet, and it sealed perfectly. Thanks to a generous donation from a sponsor, we now have a 3D mouse to use for CADD.
We had a smaller crew today as it was a holiday weekend. We were able to start and finish the frame for the ROV. This was the main focus of our day, although we also worked on the electronics. We also used this time to clean the lab, and it looks much better now.
Today we tested our depth sensor. We found that it is accurate at depth but not near the surface. We tested a new thruster and it works extremely well. We cleaned our cabinets and put up pictures to make the lab a more “homey” place. A smaller well cap was made and had a few issues that are being corrected. The back electronics container had more work done on it. After some debugging the ROV can now send and receive information. Using an oscilloscope we were able to check the output from the microcontroller to correct some problems. We calculated the math for the vector drive.
The outline for the technical report was presented to the team and deadlines were set for each section. Our joystick code was tested to control servos. We started the machining of our rear electronics container. The second prototype for the well cap was ruled out as it requires too many variables to be perfect. Our method to collect critters was tested and performed flawlessly. After testing more ways to collect our water sample, we are back to the drawing board.
We tested our well cap again at higher pressure, and at 53 psi we had no leaks at all. A second cap that is smaller is now in the works. The design for the rear electronics container was finished, taking into account buoyancy, room for SubConn connectors, room for the electronics, and also after calculating the stress and deflection of different components. Our critter collection device is almost done. We tested different ways to collect our water sample. We made a 48 V battery pack to test our robot. We again tested different gauge wires for our tether. We worked more on our website and it is looking better. The electronics was tested over our length of tether and worked well. We took apart our old tethers so we can reuse components.
Much progress was made on all of the tasks and in various other areas. The second prototype for the well cap was finished, tested, and worked flawlessly. We started to work on a battery pack to supply 48v to the robot for testing and practice. The new website was launched today. We took our team picture to be used to our technical report and poster. The sea life collection devise was worked on and mostly completed. We learned how to calculate the stress of parts and the tolerances that are allowed. We made a final list of SubConn connectors that we need to obtain. A display was added to the prototype electronics contain to display critical data without opening the can. We made cardboard mock-ups of the electronics components to design a container that fit them all. The final design for the water sample devise was completed and tested. The tether got more work done on it and much math was used to calculate buoyancy of different materials and wires. We had many visitors stop by to see how we were doing including a few Jesuits from our school as well as our principal.
We reinforced one of our tables to support our test tank and filled it with water. We hooked up a new wide angle camera that we purchased and tested it. The prototype electronics container was tested and wired. We came up with a company name and began to add content to the technical report outline. The CADD department started designing the frame of the robot and motor placement. The first prototype to collect the sea life was designed, constructed, tested, and performed flawlessly. The water sample collector was tested, modified, and the idea was scrapped after some failure. The second prototype was designed. The second well cap prototype was tested and performed moderately well, with limited soaking of the testers. We took the motors off last year’s ROV to be used this year. A flow chart of the engineering design process was presented to the team. Using this model the design for the lighting system on the ROV was presented for review by the team. A mockup of the frame was constructed out of PVC so we can visualize the size. We are still on schedule with our original timeline.
The design of the ROV is a little behind schedule. The mission props were all completed so we can start testing with them. A new layout for the website was presented to the team and the team suggested changes to it. The schedule for the rest of the year was presented to the team. An organization chart was made allowing everyone to know their role on the team so it can function to the fullest potential. The prototype electronics board was presented to the team as well as the prototype program. We made a ten foot tall devise to provide a column of water to test the pressure sensor, mounted on a cap at the bottom to calibrate the depth sensor for the robot. After a mishap a computer was soaked as well as an electronics board, but both were quickly dried and still work flawlessly. The joystick was programmed to work with the computer to control the ROV. A second design for the well cap was worked on. The CADD department made great progress virtually creating components of the robot and designed a waterproof camera housing. The first prototype for the water collection device was completed and will be tested next week. After a long and successful work day we took a break to play pvc baseball. The game uses a piece of pvc as a bat and a racquet ball instead of a baseball. It was a sad decision that we would not attend the NURC (National Underwater Robotics Challenge) competition as it ended just days before the MATE competition.
A group led the testing of ideas for the tether for this year’s robot. We know that we cannot use foam for buoyancy as we have in years past, as it will compress too much and lose its buoyant force forty feet underwater. We started work on the first prototype for the well cap. The programming and electronics team presented a software development and started work on a software flow chart. They are working on making a prototype board communicate with a computer through 100+ feet of tether. The leads of each department sat down and established what constraints each has on the ROV. A group of people recovered the SubConn connectors from previous robots and other projects.