ELECTRONICS
For our ROV Project, one part of it was we had to make controllers for our robots. To do this, we were given a motherboard and a multitude of pieces and parts we needed to attach to the board. So we learned how to solder and we began working on our board. After attaching the pieces, there were two joysticks used to control the two drive motors and two buttons for up and down respectively on the depth motor. Unfortunately, towards the end of the project the right joystick broke, deeming out controller not useable.
We also learned lots of the physics behind how our controllers and robots worked. This included the math behind parallel and series circuits, and how our controllers would short circuit if we did something wrong. To make sure they dont short circuit, we did an electrical continuity test, where a machine tells us if our controller functions and is a complete circuit. If we failed the test, we would have had to go back and check for soldering errors, because if we had run power through it at that point we would have fried the electronics. Luckily, my group was rather good at soldering and we passed on the first try. Another major portion of the construction part of the project was waterproofing. Seeing electronics die in water, we had to make sure our robot could make it. In the end this involved a bunch of electrical tape and this nasty gunk called toilet bowl wax. I learned that much patience and hard work is necessary for electronics, especially then they must be underwater.
Below is a picture of us soldering the fist piece onto our motherboard.
We also learned lots of the physics behind how our controllers and robots worked. This included the math behind parallel and series circuits, and how our controllers would short circuit if we did something wrong. To make sure they dont short circuit, we did an electrical continuity test, where a machine tells us if our controller functions and is a complete circuit. If we failed the test, we would have had to go back and check for soldering errors, because if we had run power through it at that point we would have fried the electronics. Luckily, my group was rather good at soldering and we passed on the first try. Another major portion of the construction part of the project was waterproofing. Seeing electronics die in water, we had to make sure our robot could make it. In the end this involved a bunch of electrical tape and this nasty gunk called toilet bowl wax. I learned that much patience and hard work is necessary for electronics, especially then they must be underwater.
Below is a picture of us soldering the fist piece onto our motherboard.
I am most proud of our group's ability to solder quite well. We were one of the few groups to finish this on our first try. This made me very proud because most groups had to do the soldering several times and that saved us a great amount of time. I would have changed how simple we made our design, so that it would have been a little more complex as it was really simple. Overall, I was really happy with how my group performed and wouldn't change much.