Duckling log

This is the log page for the duckling project

Week of Friday, September 14th

Matheus:

9th- Worked on the breadboard version of the nightlight. (01:30:00)
10th- Created the wiki and the log pages. (00:15:00)
12th - Soldered the perf board for the nightlight project (01:30:00)

Trish:

9th - Worked on the breadboard version of the nightlight. (01:30:00)
12th - Soldered the perf board for the nightlight project (01:30:00)
14th - Worked on the project proposal (1:00:00)

Tushar:

9th - Worked on the breadboard version of the nightlight. (01:30:00)
12th - Soldered the perf board for the nightlight project (01:30:00)
14th - Worked on the project proposal (1:00:00)

Week of Friday, September 21st

Matheus:

19th: Researched about potential challenges we might find in the project (00:30:00)
22nd: Did a few experiments with Processing to work with the Kinect (01:30:00)
26th: Meeting with professor and TAs, discussed presentation (00:30:00)
27th: Tried to get the pi to work in the lab (01:30:00)

Trish:

19th: Worked on proposal objectives and challenges (00:30:00)
20th: Worked on proposal budget and overview, downloaded arduino IDE and read about preliminary arduino projects (00:40:00)
21st: Collaborated with Tushar on Gantt chart (00:20:00)
22nd: Bought USB-C to USB converter to work with Arduino on computer, read usage section of Picar website, got Onshape account and looked in the picar github CAD folder for the onshape files of 3D printer layers and encoder mount (locating files unsuccessful), read about 3D printing, made LED blink using https://picar.readthedocs.io/en/latest/chapters/tutorials/arduino_basics.html, and read Arduino function library at https://www.arduino.cc/reference/en/. (02:00:00)

Tushar:

17th: Looked for ISC25 rotary encoders (00:20:00)
18th: Cleaned up project wiki and log page - formatted and organized layout. (00:30:00)
18th: Worked on nightlight box on Onshape (00:45:00)
19th: Finished nightlight box with Tony (00:25:00)
19th: Tried to outbid user a**s on eBay for the kinect (00:15:00)
20th: Drafted Gantt chart (01:00:00)
21st: Studied directions on Pi Car website to see what needs to be done (01:00:00)

Group :

Week of Friday, September 28th

Matheus:

25th: Reviewed the presentation for Wednesday meeting (00:30:00)
25th: Updated the Gantt Chart (00:30:00)
27th: Learnt the basics of Processing (2:00:00) 

Trish:

24th: Created presentation for Wednesday meeting, to be presented on Friday (00:45:00)
25th: Reviewed Gantt chart and powerpoint for Friday (00:20:00)
26th: Reviewing picar electronics section, reading I2C communication (https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/i2c), read raspberry pi tutorials and information guides (01:00:00)
29th: Reviewed raspberry pi setup tutorials and shs tutorials (00:30:00)
30th: Cleaned new 3D printed parts by removing excess plastic, dropped parts off at lab (01:45:00)

Tushar:

24th: Reformatted Gantt chart (00:30:00)
27th: Read PiCar documentation and watched Pi tutorials (01:00:00)
28th: Did research on kinect and tried to familiarize with Processing language (01:00:00)
28th: Spoke to Craigslist guy about buying kinect (00:15:00)

Group:

26th: Meeting with professor and TAs, discussed presentation (00:30:00)
27th: Met with group to discuss presentation (01:00:00)

Week of Friday, October 5th

Trish:

1st: Examined parts list, found discrepancies in CAD files vs manual (00:30:00)
1st: Redownloaded raspbian because the initial attempt was not working, burned it onto sd, connected Pi to desktop and waited for updates to download (03:00:00)
3rd: Looked for rotary encoder code and pin information, David helped construct a pinout from github repository code, attempted I2C communication between pi and arduino, tried to sit and supervise image processing library compiling but the compilation failed (01:30:00)
6th: Got arduino and pi to communicate - pi will print data from the arduino using serial port (https://www.sunfounder.com/blog/rpi-ard/), also cleaned 3D printed parts (01:30:00)

Tushar:

30th: Learnt Python fundamentals (02:00:00)
1st: Examined parts list, found discrepancies in CAD files vs manual (00:30:00)
1st: Downloaded raspbian, burned it onto sd, connected Pi to desktop and waited for updates to download (03:00:00)
4th: Submitted print requests for Pi car cad files, inventoried parts (00:10:00)

Matheus:

1st: Downloaded raspbian, burned it onto sd, connected Pi to desktop and waited for updates to download (02:00:00)
2nd: Put the Picamera to work (02:00:00)
3rd: Installing image processing libraries (01:00:00)

Group:

3rd: Met picar graduate group, discussed questions(stl files, trackstar motor) (00:30:00)

Week of Friday, October 12th

Short Term Goals:

-Meet with picar group and figure out wiring setup
-Finish nightlight lid
-Deconstruct chassis once it arrives and mount car
-Start testing motors in order to get car to drive
-Start testing pi camera

Trish:

9th: Reviewed autocad in an attempt to finish nighlightbox lid (01:00:00)
10th: Worked on picar in lab, assisted Tushar, discussed wiring, had team meeting (03:00:00)

Tushar:

10th: Finished most of Pi Car's mechanical assembly (06:00:00)
10th: Switched out Pi 2 for Pi 3, tried flashing it in team meeting(00:20:00)

Matheus:

9th: Tested several openCV functionalities (02:00:00)
10th: Had team meeting and worked on switching things to Pi3 (02:00:00)

Week of Friday, October 19th

Matheus:

14th: Installed OpenCV and wrote the object detecting code (07:00:00)
15th: Had to reinstall OpenCV due to compatibility differences (05:00:00)
17th: Did several improvements in the code and got the tracking to work, had meeting with Jim(02:00:00)
17th: Researched for alternatives in the PiCar (01:00:00)
18th: Worked in getting the motor to work directly from the Pi (02:30:00)

Tushar:

19th: Looked at closed loop arduino code to figure out where encoder pins are connected (01:00:00)
19th: Revised Gantt chart, proposal etc. (00:15:00)

Short terms goals for next week:

Talk to Pi car guys to figure out the encoder pins
Finish the car's mechanical assembly
Get the Pi to communicate with the motor

Changes to the Project page

Our current goals are to get the car moving around and dodging obstacles.

1. Redefine overview without the kinect. More or less the same thing, except we're relying entirely on the Pi and are not using the kinect. 
2. Revise Gantt chart to reflect new long term objectives and consequently incorporate short term milestones for the next 6 weeks
3. Throw all the nightlight stuff on there
4. Create a repository for the code we're using and put it on there

Week of Friday, October 26th

Tushar:

21st: Screwed on rotary encoder to printed mount, but gear mesh can't interact with buggy because screw heads are too long. Will fix in Green lab. Metal motor mount might be missing??(00:45:00)
21st: Tried mounting Pi and Arduino to first printed layer. Don't have the spacers for that in this lab so will go to Green lab later to finish the job (01:00:00)
21st: Tried connecting servo, ESC and encoder to Pi as per WASD.py (02:00:00)
22nd: Replaced dromida motor to take out the gear head from another car's motor, drilled through chassis to mount spacers, fixed motor mounts, mounted Pi onto the printed layers. (05:00:00)
27th: Mounted motor to chassis, tried mounting encoder to chassis but overdrilled through the base of the car so will have to get new screws. Drilled for the first printed layer but don't have enough spacers to mount (03:00:00)
27th: Updated project page (00:20:00)

Matheus:

20th: Got the Arduino to communicate with the PI via serial port(01:00:00)
20th: Wrote and tested the code to control the brushless motor(02:00:00)
22nd: Worked and got the servo to respond keyboard commands to turn the car(02:00:00)
24th: Got the servo and motor to work from the same program, although the motor still exhibits some problems with calibration(03:00:00)
29th: Got the entire electronics part to work consistently without the encoder (04:00:00)

Week of Friday, November 2nd

Tushar:

2nd: Redesigned encoder mount to accommodate full height of rotary encoder (encoder was wobbly on the chassis previously) (00:45:00)
3rd: Ordered spacers for 3D printed layers and mounted Pi and Arduino onto them (01:00:00)
3rd: Went to Lowe's to pick up screws for the encoder mount (01:00:00)

Matheus:

2nd: Got the servo to respond to the  object position on camera (03:00:00)

Week of Friday, November 9th

Tushar:

7th: Mounted encoder onto chassis and Fixed motor gear meshing issue by changing screw orientation (01:45:00)
7th: Re-dremeled base and mounted Pi and Arduino onto chassis (02:00:00)

Matheus:

15th: Got the entire code to work, with the motor and servo responding to the camera signals. The battery is out of power, so we need to get a new one(05:00:00)

Week of Thanksgiving

Tushar:

20th: Replaced pins with allen wrenches (01:00:00)

Matheus:

22nd: Worked into connecting to VNC and moving the car wirelessly. The motor and the servo are still pretty unstable for some reason, I'll try finding a way for the encoder to help with that (03:00:00)
23rd: Worked on the poster and tried to fix bugs (02:00:00)
24th: Tried to fix the motor gear but didn't have the needed wrenches, edited the code and got the encoder to work. It looks like the car is more manageable(06:00:00)

Week of Demo day

Group:

26th: Testing and debugging (03:30:00)
29th: Testing and debugging (03:00:00)

Link to Project page

[Link to Duckling Project Page]