Slow Progress

I didn't have any time to work on open rover during Fall of 2017 as I was taking 2 classes. In the Spring, I was taking the dredded algorihms class as my last class to finish up my degree. But during the Christmas break I was able to update the BLDC shield schematic. I filpped the fets around so that a heat sink could be attached and that they would not be as close to the wires coming out of the board. I upgraded to a very expensive switcher and to protect it a schottky and TVS because my theory is that the back emf from the motor was damaging the controller. I was able to get the pcbs from china but then the Spring semester hit.

After graduating I upgraded to an Nucleo F303RE with the arduino headers because the arduino couldn't process the serial commands and manage the IO without glitching. So I have implemented and tested out the serial protocol.Now I am porting all of the IO which was a mess to the mbed-os classes. Got the mbed os to compile with C++17 love the std::clamp function.

I ordered some higher current connectors for the motors because I was just using horrible AC connectors from Home Depot and it was a pain to disconnect the controller from the batteries. So I have rewired the motors, the batteries are a bit more awkward but I can used a power supply for the intial testing. I want to build a small pcb with the new connector that will have the three bi-color leds so that I can test the boards at lower current and verify the commutation states.

I got a free month at the local makerspace so I am able to work on it there. I might clean up the welding and redo the wheel mounts because the hub motors kind of rub the legs if too much wait is put on the platform. I did get a flux-core welder for christmas :)

Hope to get one of the motors spinning in the next week or so. The new code and schematics are in the repo.