Project Update 02-28-04
Last update I mentioned the little electronic BB gun that I got. I took the gun apart, figured out how it worked and then decided on a way for my SV203 board to fire it directly and bypass the trigger.
Here is an image of the gun itself.
I took it apart and here is what it looks like on the inside.
Basically, the trigger pushed an on/off switch for the little motor that was geared way down. The final gear had only about 80% of its teeth. It pulled back a piston of sort. Just as the piston got to its rear position a BB falls into the chamber and the gear runs out of teeth and allows the piston to fly forward and spit the BB out.
All I have to do is bypass the trigger and connect directly to the motor itself with power. The SV203 can act as an on/off switch but it wont push enough amps to make the motor turn. I plugged it directly into my 800milliamp power supply with no luck. Next I tried the 5V contacts on a PC power supply and that worked like a charm. So I'll have to hook up some kind of power transistor to allow the SV203 to turn on the high power needed from another source.
The whole firing mech is a bit more than I thought it would be and I cant rip it out and still have it work unless I make my own housing. The current housing is going to be a pain to mount to some kind of servo aiming system.
More Chassis Planning
Ever since I got the wheels and understood a little better about how I would mount the axles etc. Before I was unsure exactly what parts would all go well together etc. Finally, after seeing the wheels I decided on having a live axle. That is, the axle would not sit still with the tire spinning around it, it would actually drive the wheel.
The Motor spins the sprocket, the sprocket drive the chain, the chain spins the sprocket on the axle the axle spins the hub with the tire on it...
I found some pillow blocks and flange bearings that I liked at the roboto marketplace and I modeled them in 3DS Max and added them to my current chassis models.
Here is my first chassis design and my current favorite with the new bearing mounts modeled.
I've pretty much decided that the center motor design is going to be the one I go with. I also wanted to see if I could get the width of the vehile down by offsetting the motors so that they could overlap in the center. I made the following design. Its pretty drastic but it shows how the idea would work. I'm not really sure how big/small I need the whole thing to be but this 3D model is probably smaller than it will have to be in real life. Hopefully soon I will be able to make a final decision on the dimensions and then I'll just make sure I can fit everything in. There has to be room for batteries and the computer, and whatever goodies I need
If you have any suggestions or advice now is the time to give it. I'm pretty much set on the above design, all thats left is the actual distances between the tires and motors etc.
Here is an image of the gun itself.
I took it apart and here is what it looks like on the inside.
Basically, the trigger pushed an on/off switch for the little motor that was geared way down. The final gear had only about 80% of its teeth. It pulled back a piston of sort. Just as the piston got to its rear position a BB falls into the chamber and the gear runs out of teeth and allows the piston to fly forward and spit the BB out.
All I have to do is bypass the trigger and connect directly to the motor itself with power. The SV203 can act as an on/off switch but it wont push enough amps to make the motor turn. I plugged it directly into my 800milliamp power supply with no luck. Next I tried the 5V contacts on a PC power supply and that worked like a charm. So I'll have to hook up some kind of power transistor to allow the SV203 to turn on the high power needed from another source.
The whole firing mech is a bit more than I thought it would be and I cant rip it out and still have it work unless I make my own housing. The current housing is going to be a pain to mount to some kind of servo aiming system.
More Chassis Planning
Ever since I got the wheels and understood a little better about how I would mount the axles etc. Before I was unsure exactly what parts would all go well together etc. Finally, after seeing the wheels I decided on having a live axle. That is, the axle would not sit still with the tire spinning around it, it would actually drive the wheel.
The Motor spins the sprocket, the sprocket drive the chain, the chain spins the sprocket on the axle the axle spins the hub with the tire on it...
I found some pillow blocks and flange bearings that I liked at the roboto marketplace and I modeled them in 3DS Max and added them to my current chassis models.
Here is my first chassis design and my current favorite with the new bearing mounts modeled.
I've pretty much decided that the center motor design is going to be the one I go with. I also wanted to see if I could get the width of the vehile down by offsetting the motors so that they could overlap in the center. I made the following design. Its pretty drastic but it shows how the idea would work. I'm not really sure how big/small I need the whole thing to be but this 3D model is probably smaller than it will have to be in real life. Hopefully soon I will be able to make a final decision on the dimensions and then I'll just make sure I can fit everything in. There has to be room for batteries and the computer, and whatever goodies I need
If you have any suggestions or advice now is the time to give it. I'm pretty much set on the above design, all thats left is the actual distances between the tires and motors etc.
