Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Encoder Update

Encoder Snag

I hit a minor snag in designing the encoder chip. I completed the circuit on Sunday to find out on Monday that one out of four connectors functioned. Turns out I was reading the 5 band mini resistors incorrectly instead of being 11k OHM resistors they were 1k OHM and I blew two detectors. I learned my lesson about making sure to have my DMM with me. Fortunately, I had ordered some detectors from sparkfun a week ago so I am moving forward with reconstruction of the sensors. This time I am focusing my efforts on fusing the chip to each encoder instead of on a single board to minimize confusion. In addition, I modified the code to allow for 4 sensors. Currently, I need to focus on learning how to write functions in the Arduino language because much of the current code is heavily redundant. I have read the data sheet on the Sharp Long Range IR sensors and expect that construction / implementation should be relatively easy after the encoders are done.

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