Parts!

This past weekend, I was able to get a bluetooth shield, a motor shield, and the gearbox. I assembled the gearbox. I have started to try to figure out how to interact with the bluetooth shield. Hopefully all of the parts will be ready for pickup before thanksgiving. Soon I will post the solidworks models, they have been done for weeks, but I haven't uploaded them yet.

Waiting game

The spreadsheet issues have been fixed. Now we wait for parts.

November 9th. Progress

Today, the entire 3d model is complete and the 3d parts as well as the laser cut parts have been ordered. The off the shelf parts will be ordered as soon as the delays in the spreadsheet are fixed.

We have met our goals for this week!
As for the toy tank, we have decided not to use it and will make our own drive base.

Goal for next week is to have all the parts and start assembly.

Our 3d model. (the real one will have a motor shield above the arduino)

Saturday November 8th progress

Over the past week, I have used solidworks to make a 3d model of the tank. Its not quite done yet, but I have made all of the parts of the turret. And am currently modeling the drive base and the controls platforms. I will post renders later this weekend


List of parts to order

Drive motor
http://www.pololu.com/product/61

Adafruit motor shield
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1438

Wheels X 2
http://www.pololu.com/product/63

Battery holder
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Pointed-Batteries-Battery-Holder/dp/B00CQKAZES/ref=sr_1_4?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1415485253&sr=8-4&keywords=18650+holder

Batteries
http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-5000mAH-Lithium-Battery-Yellow/dp/B00K9UQHX0/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1415485095&sr=8-13&keywords=18650


EDIT Nov 9

Roller
http://www.pololu.com/product/952

November 2nd planning meeting

Using this video as inspiration, Josh and I have decided on how we will shoot the rubber bands. I already have the three servos that we will need to fire the rubber bands, change the angle of inclination and a platform to rotate the turret. Because we no longer need any stepper motors, we have hopefully eliminated our need to cannibalise a printer. We have decided to 3d print a structure similar to the one in the video to shoot the rubber band.

Goals for this week:

• Get toy tank
• 3d model everything
• start 3d printing parts
• laser cut acrylic drive platform.

Parts to order:

• 1 Motor shield.
• Bluetooth shield.*
• Rubber bands.
• Battery/power source.

November 1st planning meeting

November 1st meeting.
Today Josh and myself met to plan how we are going to design, build, and program our toy. We need to decide if we want to have the tank launch things using a rubber band as the propellant. Or if we want to launch the rubber band its self. Hopefully we should have that figured out tomorrow.  We have decided that in the event that things fall behind schedule, that we will abandon the driving aspects of the tank, and make it into a stationary turret.

We set out a schedule for when we want to have everything finished and created a list of which parts we need to get for this project.

Schedule:

• For November 2nd.
• Work on designs for both firing mechanism ideas
• create a list of parts to order/obtain.
• Nov. 9th: Executive summary finished, decided on a firing mechanism, ordered parts, create  
• Executive summary finished.
• Decide on firing mechanism.
• Have all parts for the firing/aiming mechanism
• Create CAD models of all parts that need to be manufactured.
• Decide if we want a moving platform or stationary turret, if yes, then order necessary parts.
• For November 16th:
• Assembly completed for entire project. Wiring completed.
• For November 23rd:
• Completed programming and testing.
• December 4th
• Presentation day.

Annoyingly, Thanksgiving happens to take away the last week of this project, ideally everything is completed the Sunday before thanksgiving, but if we need the extra time, we have the weekend after Thanksgiving. 

Parts list

• 4 wheels + drive motors *
• Driving platform*
• Power supply (battery)*
• 2 motor shields
• Stepper motor (for pulling back the rubber-band)+
• Some other motor to change the elevation of the gun+
• smooth metal rod and slider for the cocking mechanism to ride on +

+ means we can get this part from a printer that we might be able to disassemble

 * means that it is needed for the drive base.