Talk:Searching for Stability

Proposal Review

I have to say that I'm a bit confused about your proposal, and I have a few questions:

1. I don't see an IMU or an encoder in your budget. How are you going to measure movements?
2. Your budget considers a gimbal controller board, which I assume contains firmware to stabilize the motors. In that case, does your project only consists on designing the mount for the bicycle?
3. When you say "perfecting the programming on the controller board", do you mean that you are going to design a better controller than the one the manufacturer provides? What if the original controller's code is complex/obscure and undocumented (a likely scenario)? Are you going to design a completely new controller in that case?
4. How are you going to charge the LiPo battery? What is your estimated use time for a single charge?

I'm working under a number of hypotheses here, but if I'm correct in my assumptions then you need to rethink your project. You need to ask yourselves what is going to be your contribution over the existing gimbal controller board. Your project must offer a new feature over the existing parts. Moreover, that feature must include in some form skills from electrical or systems engineering. Just designing a bicycle mount does not meet that criteria. For example, you could design the motor controller yourselves, instead of buying a ready-to-use controller. Or you could try to incorporate a new sensor to the controller, like an encoder or an infrared sensor mounted on the front wheel damper.

Also, it is not acceptable to have a budget that says "other unforeseen items". The point of a budget is to have an idea of how much money you need and with what purpose. It is your job during the proposal stage of the project to have a clear idea of what do you need to buy.

Please meet with your TA to discuss these issues and update your proposal as soon as possible. Your proposal needs a lot of work, so you need to move fast.

Humberto (talk) 01:34, 13 February 2016 (CST)

IN RESPONSE TO: We changed our proposal from using a control board and an IMU to using magnetic rotary encoders and an Arduino to elevate the electrical engineering component. All products in the budget that will be bought online have been hyperlinked. We plan to charge the LiPo battery using a LiPo battery charger we already own and expect a usage time of between 2 and 4 hours for a single charge.

--Natalie.ng (talk) 18:11, 13 February 2016 (CST)