Monday Madness!

Yo dudettes! I suspect that Doug and myself won't get to Castilleja until 6:30 pm or so but here are a few things to get started with:

1. Check out the code in the 'EMILY' folder on the desktop computer. It's the basic autonomous driving code that we wrote for the 2005 robot controller, rebuilt for the 2006 robot controller. That's what we've got downloaded to the robot controller right now so you can jump it in and out of autonomous and see what it does.

A few things to notice:

* Open up 'driving.c'. You'll find a few extra functions in it that are named 'TurretCW', 'TurretCCW' and 'TurretStop'. Do those make sense?

* Open up 'user_routines_fast.c' and under the User_Autonomous function, you'll find that I've added some test code for the turret motor. We haven't actually hooked up the turret motor (van door motor) underneath the camera platform yet so we should try.

BIG CAUTION BIG BIG BIG CAUTION: PLEASE *REMOVE* the LIMIT SWITCHES FROM THE PLATFORM before you try to run ANY CODE on the turret platform. If in doubt, call me. The van door motor has some SERIOUS torque and if the code is wrong (i.e. I'm not sure of the directions completely yet), it can result in the van door motor totally running the limit switches over, smushing them.

So, just pull the limit switches out of the holes in the platform for now, but don't unplug them from the robot controller. You can still used them.

* Hook up the speed controller (Victor 884) for the van door motor. You'll need some leads for power (black for ground, red for power - ask Julia who's been doing a fantastic job on the electronics board). You'll also need a PWM cable from the RC. Finally, you'll need to also make sure that the fan on top of the speed controller (Victor 884) gets power. Look at the other speed controllers for reference.

PLEASE DON'T BLOW THE SPEED CONTROLLERS UP. ALWAYS MAKE SURE THE FANS ARE ON. EACH VICTOR 884 COSTS $115.00. That means the electronics alone on our robot is worth well over $1000.00.

Yeah?? Okay, Doug and I will be there soon.

2. Debug the speed controllers on the electronics board. I suspect that might need more of Doug's help, but no worries.

Good luck and see you tomorrow!

Emily