Task 17

Machine design

In this week, I was given a task to have a group assignment. The group assignment was to actuate and automate our machine of Week 15 and to document the group project and the individual contribution. The details can be found on the group page Group Page.

Individual Contribution

After, Alok Sethi was able to program the single node movement using the Gestalt module, I started to work on the 2 nodes movement i.e X an Y Axis seperately. The code of the single node was utlized from the gestalt module repository as the code that was given to us by Alok. The Code is simple to use and requires understanding of the necessary chnages to be made that can result in the particular direction of movement. The below pictures represent the connectivity of one node and two nodes.

Fig.1 - FTDI USB, Motor Driver Controller and the Stepper Motor
Fig.2 - 2 Axis Motors Connected to 2 Gestalt Module
about
Fig.3 - 2 Axis Motors Connected to 2 Gestalt Module

Understanding and Modifying the Code

I started with the Example code and started modifying the code.

  • Step 1: Defining the Baudrate and the COM port was defined in my case it was COM12
  • Step 2: To Define the number of Axis we are working on, since it was a test case, I considered number of Axis to be 2 thereby named as X and Y Axis.
  • Step 3: The Coordinates are in an Arrary and there units are in "mm".
  • Step 4: Selecting the specification of the Axis i.e. degrees of rotation and the direction of rotation
  • Step 5: Finally defining the coordinates of movement i.e for every bracket of supercoords the machine changes direction! supercoords = [[20],[10]] //that will actually make 2 moves in opposite directions and [0] indicates it to stop.

    • Fig.4 - Understanding and Modifying the code.

    The code worked extremely fine, after couple of trial and errors it was finally a success. After the success with two nodes, Sahan moved to the next stage of modifying the code for three axis movement.

    Resources Utilized

    Files