Introduction: MiniFRC Power Up Dumpy McDumpsterface Tutorial
Tutorial for Dumpy McDumpsterface, a MiniFRC Power up robot!
Materials:
- Chassis material of choice (needs to be at least 7in by 5in ~1/4in thick)
- 1 sheet of dollar store foam core
- 4 motors
- 4 wheels
- 1 arduino uno
- 1 arduino motor shield
- 1 6 AA battery holder
- 1 9 gram servo
- 1 bamboo skewer at least 3 1/2in long
- 6 AA batteries
- 1 HC-06 bluetooth chip
- 4 female headers
- wires to solder to motors
- wires for bluetooth chip
Tools needed:
- soldering iron
- hot glue gun
- hot glue sticks
- small phillips head screwdriver
- box cutter or x-acto knife
If you have any questions email me at: tklemmer19@rthighschool.org
Step 1: Prepare Your Chassis
1. Choose your chassis from a material ~1/4in thick. In this tutorial I made my chassis from foam core because that was the only material I had on hand. Do NOT use foam core for your chassis.
2. Cut the chassis into a 7in by 5in rectangle.
Step 2: Make the Dumper Holder
1. Cut two 5in by 2 1/2in rectangles out of foam core.
2. Glue the two rectangles together.
3. Glue the dumper holder onto the front of the chassis. (one of the 5in sides)
Step 3: Make the Dumper Holder Supports
1. Cut two triangles with side lengths of 2in by 2 1/4in.
2. Glue the triangles to the chassis ~1/4in - 3/8in from the outside edge of the chassis. (2in side on to the dumper holder, 2 1/4in side onto the chassis)
Step 4: Make the Dumper
1. Cut one 6in by 6 3/4in rectangle out of foam core. (Base)
2. Cut two 1 1/2 in by 6 3/4in rectangles out of foam core (Side)
3. Cut one 6in by 1 1/2in rectangle. (Back)
4. Glue the two side pieces to the 6 3/4in side(s) of the base rectangle. (one on each side)
5. Glue the back piece onto the backs of the other wall pieces.
Step 5: Attach the Dumper to the Dumper Holder
1. Line up the front of the dumper to the center of the dumper holder.
2. Use packing tape to attach the top of the dumper (where the cube will sit) to the front side of the dumper holder.
3. Use packing tape to attach the bottom of the dumper to the back side of the dumper holder.
4. line the inside of the dumper with packing tape to create a smooth surface for the cube to slide along.
Step 6: Insert the Battery Holder
1. Glue the battery holder in between the dumper holder supports.
2. Put 6 AA batteries into the battery holder.
Step 7: Put the Arduino Into Place
1. Use a piece of tape wrapped around itself and stick it to the arduino.
2. Line up the side of the arduino with the side of the battery holder and the back of the arduino with the front of the battery pack.
3. Make sure that the barrel connector from the battery pack an reach the black power port on the front of the arduino.
3a. If the barrel connector does not reach, trim the thin plastic surrounding the wires coming from the barrel connector. This should allow for the wires to bend enough to reach the black power port.
Step 8: Wire the Bluetooth Chip
1. Solder a female header into analog pin 0 (green circle)
2. Solder a female header into analog pin 1 (purple circle)
3. Solder a female header into the ground port (brown circle)
4. Solder a female header into the 5 volt port (red circle)
5. Connect a wire from the VCC (voltage) pin on the bluetooth chip to the 5+ port (red circle) on the arduino.
6. Connect a wire from the GND (ground) pin on the bluetooth chip to the ground port (brown circle) on the arduino.
7. Connect a wire from the TX pin on the bluetooth chip to analog pin 0 (green circle) on the arduino.
8. Connect a wire from the RX pin on the bluetooth chip to analog pin 1 (purple circle) on the arduino.
Step 9: Connect the Motor Shield to the Arduino
1. Line up the pins on the motor shield with the female header ports on the arduino.
2. Softly push down until the pins on the motor shield are all the way into the female header ports on the arduino.
Step 10: Prepare the Servo
1. Screw the servo horn onto the servo.
2. Cut a bamboo skewer to 3 1/2in.
3. Glue the bamboo skewer to the servo, but make sure not to cover the screw.
Step 11: Attach the Servo
1. Line up the servo 1/2in from the right side of the robot (opposite the arduino)
2. Line up the servo 3in from the back of the robot.
3. Glue down the servo
4. Plug the servo into the port labeled SER1 on the motor shield, make sure the brown wire is closest to the edge of the motor shield.
Step 12: Solder the Motors
1. Cut 8 pieces of wire ~6in long. (preferably 22 gauge solid core wire)
2. Strip ~1/4in off of each end of all the wires.
3. Create a "hook" from the exposed wire on one end of each wire.
4. loop the "hook" through the hole on the copper "ear" coming from the motor.
5. Solder the wire into place. Each motor should have two wires, one on each side.
6. Repeat for all other wires.
7. loop the wire to the other side of the motor and secure it in place with a ziptie. (reference picture)
Step 13: Attach the Motors and Wheels
1. Glue down each motor, motor ear/wire solder spot facing in, flush against the side and ~1in in from the front and/or back side.
Step 14: Connect the Motor Wires to the Motor Shield
1. Put both the black wires from the two left motors into the left side of motor port 1 (M1)
2. Put both the red wires from the two left motors into the right side of motor port 1 (M1)
3. Put both the black wires from the two right motors into the right side of motor port 2 (M2)
4. Put both the red wires from the two right motors into the left side of motor port 2 (M2)
Step 15: Download the Software You Need
Step 16: Programming the Arduino
1. Open the code titled "DefaultBotServo.ino"
2. Find the line of code pictured above. (you might have to click on it to see it)
3. Change the 0 in the parentheses to a 95. This changes the position where the servo stays at (neutral position), unless the button is pressed.
Step 17: Uploading Code
1.Plug in the arduino to your computer with the blue cable.
2. On the "tools" tab in the arduino software, hover your mouse over the "port:" option. A list of ports named COM with a random number should appear.
3. Select the port labeled with "(Arduino/Genuino UNO)".
4. Upload your code.
5. If no ports are labeled with "(Arduino/Genuino UNO)", try selecting each COM port and attempt to upload until it works.
6. After code is uploaded, unplug the blue cable.
Step 18: Connect to Your Robot Over Bluetooth
Watch the video (start at 12:24, end at 21:54) on how to connect to your robot. The video will also show how to change motor direction to make sure the robot drives correctly.
