Finally a more eventful update!
Last time I worked with building parts in CAD I was using solidworks or AutoCAD. I have no desire to buy either one of those right now plus I need something that will run on linux. So started investing some time into learning my way around FreeCAD.
Creating first iteration of the wheel
50mm radius for a 10cm/100mm diameter wheel
3mm thick
Based on the specs of the motor:
Features:
Rated voltage: DC 3V
Rated speed: 15000 RPM
Motor size: 38 x 20 x 15 mm/1.5" x 0.8" x 0.6"
Shaft diameter: 2 mm/0.08"
Shaft length: 10 mm/0.4"
Material: metal
The hole is 1mm radius for a 2mm diameter hole
Print time was going to take 2 hours and 9 minutes. So time to reduce some material because we don’t want to wait that long
This takes it down to 1 hour 21 minutes
After lots of wrestling with bed leveling and things not sticking..
While this printed we started looking at how we want the body to look. Designing a caster for the 3 wheeled robot we realized was a little harder then we really wanted. Plus we were inspired by a rover… so we are leaning towards a 4 wheel design with a box to house the brain in… and surface area on top for mounting things in the future
The wheel finished printing!
So… we had to try it!
Woot!
Queue the other wheels!
While we waited did a bit of soldering and put antennas on the 433mhz chips
Then set about figuring out basic programs and getting everything hooked up to breadboards.
Got the L239D H-Bridge working doing speed control.
Then after a long period of debugging… finally got the 433mhz transmitter and receiver talking. Ended up getting it working with the virtualwire library.
Next step get the chassis designed and printed!