Acheiving Bidirectional control of the motor!
Opened up the servo casing. Managed to collect the scattered pieces which had flown out from Rohith's hands as we opened. Serendipitously found the potentiometer(pot) under the last gear!!!
Now the problem of bidirectional control of the motor.
Tried setting direction with "00" command with the pot set to one extreme - motor would rotate one way depending on the pot set.
Tried with the pot set to a mid position - still same problem.
Brainwave! Lets have a micro-mini to set the pot.
Alas! we dont hav micro-mini's.
Used the "04" - Absolute position set command and Eureka! it works with the pot set in the middle position.
Finalised the body structure
The body structure had to be suitable for a 3 wheeled vehicle. The frame had to support the weight of laptop and also be stable while carrying the 1 foot long arm mechanism. We initially started with triangle and pretty soon realized that it is difficult to attach wheels at the vertices. We then decided upon a skewed hexagonal structure for the frame.
There would be small flat wooden planks nailed to the frame to provide a base to keep the laptop.
Testing mini servo and lazy suzan board
Cut the wood for the frame
The frame is made of solid wooden garden pole of cross section 3cm X 4cm. The back joints were butt joints fixed with an L-clamp for ensuring right angle. Other joints were half-and-half joints fastened with nails.
With lots of energy spent, the pieces to build the frame were cut (with a hack-saw!!!!)
Cutting the wood for the frame
Marking the cuts for the frame
