New Controller!

We saw a tweet from Pimoroni about a new controller from 8BitDo...

NEW PRODUCT! 8BitDo SN30 Pro+ Bluetooth gamepad. This one is the bee’s knees!! Buttons, analog sticks, triggers, and even force feedback. Create custom button mappings and macros for your favourite games.https://t.co/r4xuZnnAcG pic.twitter.com/PzI5AGAcCu

— pimoroni (@pimoroni) October 17, 2019

Amiizdad said he would add support to the @approx_eng python game pad library but, as it turns out, its an exact clone of the XBox controller, so it just works.

It's well made and has a rechargeable battery pack with a long discharge time, making it reasonable value for money, and has a USB C charging port.

However, most importantly, we have a nice controller for the Forest Fighters robot.

All Hail The Claw!

So we need a way to pickup and carry barrels. Thankfully we don't need to do this autonomously.

A claw design on thingiverse leaped out at us...





It's quite long but depending on how it's mounted it should fit within the overall length requirement. The good thing is we can modify the grips to be more barrel friendly!

Motor Controller Testing...

Over the past few days, we have been comparing motor controllers and seeing how best to place 4 motors, 2 batteries, Pi and controller.

Basically, unless we have some complex belt drive we are limited with the width of the robot being as wide as the  2 x the width of the tyres + 2 x the length of the motors, and we want big tyres.

 

We found some nice 12mm hex hub wheels that were not too wide which also has some grip.

The length of the robot is less constrained, it obviously has to take the batteries we are using but the overall length (and height) will need to cope with our ball launcher, which will probably be the same as last year. ( 5, 6 and 5 scored in the duck shoot!! ).

We basically have a rolling chassis with the components laid out roughly where they will go.




14V battery pack with motors mounted below and Pi and electronics above. Pi Camera for line following and remote navigation using pan and tilt mount.