This week, the team continued research on regen braking. Focusing on using MOSFETs and a full-wave rectifier to charge the battery when the DC motors are braking. Also, the mechatronics team is currently debugging the code to work with the test rig. We have come across several problems which include: timing of the stepper motor, stepper motor moving at inappropriate times, and being stuck in loops. The team observed that the stepper was moving continuously after the magnet was detected. To solve this, we created a variable that is set to true when the magnet is detected. Then, if the magnet hasn't been sensed in a while, the variable is reset to false. We're trying to do it this way because we couldn't initiate steering directly inside the interrupt routine service code (which occurs once a magnet is detected).
As for the mechanical portion of the team, we have begun designing brakes for the bogie. We plan to be able to finish design and order parts within the same week. This bogie design utilizes a vice-like movement in that the brakes clamp an object with a considerable amount of force (in this case it would be the rail). This will be operated via an extra stepper motor and the entire braking system will be an extension that will be mounted on with welds.
By next week, we should be finished debugging the code and move onto testing on the test rig with bigger motors/steppers.
As for the mechanical portion of the team, we have begun designing brakes for the bogie. We plan to be able to finish design and order parts within the same week. This bogie design utilizes a vice-like movement in that the brakes clamp an object with a considerable amount of force (in this case it would be the rail). This will be operated via an extra stepper motor and the entire braking system will be an extension that will be mounted on with welds.
By next week, we should be finished debugging the code and move onto testing on the test rig with bigger motors/steppers.
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