Electric Vehicle C

[windu34]

So sorry to double post, but I need some advice. Because of the rules, we have to use one battery for both the Arduino and the motor shield. The *slight* problem is that the wires leading to the DC jack for the Arduino burned up when we plugged in the battery. Does anyone have any ideas?

First off, I'm pretty certain that the Arduino does not need to be powered by the same supply of the motor. Wasn't that the rule from last year that they changed?
Anyhow I power everything from a single battery pack by connecting the Arduino DC jack and the Motor/ESC power input in parallel with each other with respect to the battery without any problem by utilizing a voltage converter between the power source and the Arduino DC jack. I step up the 7.2V to 9V going into the Arduino and current is limited to <2A automatically by the regulator

If the Arduino and the motor do not have to be powered by same supply, does the combined voltage of the two batteries have to equal 9V, or can you use 9V batteries for both Arduino and motor separately?

The rules say "across any two points" meaning as long as the voltage is less than 9V at every point in the circuit, it is legal.
This:

can you use 9V batteries for both Arduino and motor separately?

[Chameleon02]

So I am new in this event with about 1 month and a half until states (My coach put me in here because of my success in other build events), and don't want to anchor my team, so hoping for a decent score. Most of the focus in here has been about programming the EV, but I have zero experience with Arduino. I read through all the forums for this year and did a little online searching. I wanted to know if the wing nut axle braking system could be implemented here and if it can possibly be accurate. Basically a method where I would not have to program the EV. I was thinking that I could mark intervals to place the wind nut to attain specific distances with the vehicle. Would this be possible? Are there any methods that are relatively easy to accomplish?
Thanks,
My team did bad in this event at regional, and this was the worst event for us. The kids in there used an ev3, it never stopped, and rammed a wall. Those kids got taken off the V team, and my coach decided to place me in. I hope I am not sounding like I am reaching too high, but I have an interest in performing well.

[4Head]

So I am new in this event with about 1 month and a half until states (My coach put me in here because of my success in other build events), and don't want to anchor my team, so hoping for a decent score. Most of the focus in here has been about programming the EV, but I have zero experience with Arduino. I read through all the forums for this year and did a little online searching. I wanted to know if the wing nut axle braking system could be implemented here and if it can possibly be accurate. Basically a method where I would not have to program the EV. I was thinking that I could mark intervals to place the wind nut to attain specific distances with the vehicle. Would this be possible? Are there any methods that are relatively easy to accomplish?
Thanks,
My team did bad in this event at regional, and this was the worst event for us. The kids in there used an ev3, it never stopped, and rammed a wall. Those kids got taken off the V team, and my coach decided to place me in. I hope I am not sounding like I am reaching too high, but I have an interest in performing well.

Wing nut is tried and true, and it will work. Don't mark the axle, record however many amount of turns you need to wind backwards to achieve the distance and write it down for reference.

[DoctaDave]

So I am new in this event with about 1 month and a half until states (My coach put me in here because of my success in other build events), and don't want to anchor my team, so hoping for a decent score. Most of the focus in here has been about programming the EV, but I have zero experience with Arduino. I read through all the forums for this year and did a little online searching. I wanted to know if the wing nut axle braking system could be implemented here and if it can possibly be accurate. Basically a method where I would not have to program the EV. I was thinking that I could mark intervals to place the wind nut to attain specific distances with the vehicle. Would this be possible? Are there any methods that are relatively easy to accomplish?
Thanks,
My team did bad in this event at regional, and this was the worst event for us. The kids in there used an ev3, it never stopped, and rammed a wall. Those kids got taken off the V team, and my coach decided to place me in. I hope I am sounding like I am reaching too high, but I have an interest in performing well.

The wingnut method can and has worked well in the past for many teams. Instead of making marks on the threaded rod, you should count the number of times you rotate the wheel; this will be much more accurate. Another tip I have is to have a separate wing nut on the other axle that will turn the motor off before the wingnut engages the main brake. This way the car has enough time to slow down after it passes the 8.5m mark and will skid less, making your runs more consistent across different floor surfaces.

If you did want to go the route of using an Arduino, it really isn't too difficult. You can probably figure out how to control a motor, and program it to stop after traveling a certain distance within a week. But the downside is if you don't get it to work you just wasted a lot of money and time :/ If I were in your position, with no experience in coding or the EV event itself, I would probably just go with the wingnut method as its probably the safer bet.

Good luck!

[dragonfruit35]

So I am new in this event with about 1 month and a half until states (My coach put me in here because of my success in other build events), and don't want to anchor my team, so hoping for a decent score. Most of the focus in here has been about programming the EV, but I have zero experience with Arduino. I read through all the forums for this year and did a little online searching. I wanted to know if the wing nut axle braking system could be implemented here and if it can possibly be accurate. Basically a method where I would not have to program the EV. I was thinking that I could mark intervals to place the wind nut to attain specific distances with the vehicle. Would this be possible? Are there any methods that are relatively easy to accomplish?
Thanks,
My team did bad in this event at regional, and this was the worst event for us. The kids in there used an ev3, it never stopped, and rammed a wall. Those kids got taken off the V team, and my coach decided to place me in. I hope I am sounding like I am reaching too high, but I have an interest in performing well.

The wingnut method can and has worked well in the past for many teams. Instead of making marks on the threaded rod, you should count the number of times you rotate the wheel; this will be much more accurate. Another tip I have is to have a separate wing nut on the other axle that will turn the motor off before the wingnut engages the main brake. This way the car has enough time to slow down after it passes the 8.5m mark and will skid less, making your runs more consistent across different floor surfaces.

If you did want to go the route of using an Arduino, it really isn't too difficult. You can probably figure out how to control a motor, and program it to stop after traveling a certain distance within a week. But the downside is if you don't get it to work you just wasted a lot of money and time :/ If I were in your position, with no experience in coding or the EV event itself, I would probably just go with the wingnut method as its probably the safer bet.

Good luck!

I completely agree- the wingnut method is likely easier to build and there's nothing you have to code, just do some testing. If you do enough testing, it can be very accurate! (sorry if this is late )

[Bazinga+]

Here is my Electric Vehicle as well as the steering mechanism I used:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKC8MYR ... e=youtu.be

I highly recommend using the caliper steering method as it has worked very well for me and others that have used it, with the top 3 vehicles at MIT invitationals using this mechanism.

[cuber]

Aha, I noticed your car at impound and was impressed with the design, still surprised the mount beat you guys in that event. We used the exact same motor lol, but I wish I could have thought of something like that caliper steering sooner. oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .

[Bazinga+]

Aha, I noticed your car at impound and was impressed with the design, still surprised the mount beat you guys in that event. We used the exact same motor lol, but I wish I could have thought of something like that caliper steering sooner. oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .

Yeah, we had an issue at the competition since we had to remove the batteries from the caliper in order to show the voltage, which threw off the calibration.

[NilaiVemula]

Our team's Electric Vehicle just got 5th in the Tennessee State Science Olympiad Division C Tournament, but our team overall got 1st. Our distance score was 29 cm and our time score was 4 sec with no bonus. (Our distance would have been more accurate, but the vehicle skid while braking.) For nationals, we want to improve our vehicle by allowing it to turn and get the bonus. Has anyone tried using a turning system in which they program their vehicle to make 90-degree turns to get off the center line at the beginning, turn right and travel for about 10-20 cm, turn left to be parallel with the center line, go forward through the cans, and then turn back onto the center line? We are currently debating whether that would be easier to program than having the car travel in an arc. The current set up of our vehicle has two motors, each driving its own front axle. This allows us to program different speeds for each motor.

[NilaiVemula]

Here is my Electric Vehicle as well as the steering mechanism I used:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKC8MYR ... e=youtu.be

I highly recommend using the caliper steering method as it has worked very well for me and others that have used it, with the top 3 vehicles at MIT invitationals using this mechanism.

How did you attach the bearing block to the caliper?