ARGHH!!!

BUSY BUSY BUSY I AM!!!

So far I'm not doing too bad. After many failed attempts at sewing (yes sewing...because I can sew...) on the head material I found a winning result by attaching strings made of double thread to the material and then tying them together very tight to have the material wrap right over the head completely. The end result is awesome, looks so much better now being a bulb of a plant rather than resembling the remains of the old dinosaur i started with. As well as that I have made me some more leaves like I did the other day, looking good and coming together. Can't wait!

Final Round!!

Going to be a very busy day today as 371 has stolen a huge amount of time off me having to write the essay and it has put my robot behind schedule a fair bit, didn't manage to spend any time on it over the labour weekend. No time to waste though, lots to do... for my reference:

TO DO LIST:

1) Attach Head Material
2) Make Leaves
3) Make Dirt
4) Find 9V battery to power plant instead of USB cord. Solder pins to it.
5) Make a new piece to hold loose motor part so it wont jiggle and cause the motion to break.
6) Ground Vince (plant) to pot base.
7) Assemble!
8) Adjust thresholds
9) Film!
10) Make documentation - Don't Forget, 600+ Words as well as video!!

Time is almost up!

Tomorrow is the last work day to complete this project. Scary stuff, it has come so so quick!

Unfortunately I didn't have a lot of spare time today and had none in the weekend damn it! After finally completing the 371 essay it was 5pm and I had work at 6 so I just did some soldering and wire stuff. Had to increase the length of wires on the motion sensor so that I can have it on the outside of the pot of the plant rather than up close to the arduino as I have had it for testing purposes. In doing so this would put the motion sensor inside the pot for the final robot and that wouldn't achieve much results!

I also went down to the workshop before it closed at 5.30pm to drill some wire holes in my base.

Wired Up! But Better :D

I changed my original setup using the transistor and instead I have now followed suit like others are doing and gone for using an H Bridge. This allows me to add a little more complexity to my project as I can play with the motion a lot more this way. I have implemented a threshold system now so that Vince (the plant) will react more or less dependent on the amount of movement. Changes to the movement include speed and direction. He now moves slower and faster and moves his head both left and right. Yus! Gotta love it when things go right :D

Bread Board:

Arduino:

Leaves....Oh so beautiful leaves!

Decided to take a break from the electronics side of things and take a look back at the aesthetics of my plant. I found this nice papery material at home that I though might work wonders for my leaves, it had a nice texture to it that I thought well suited. Bonus to this is that the paper is green as well, score!

On its own it looked kind of boring so I decided that I would use a similar technique to what I did on the polar fleece last weekend.

This was the better of the lot:

It created this sort of veiny look that is perfect for leaves. So looks like I've found my way of making them, stay tuned!

Past couple of days...

I have been in the workshop downstairs making the base for my plant to sit on when "planted" in the pot - which I had to get a new one... damn thing broke in my bag. Got me a nice terracotta one instead, much more durable and I think also looks a lot better. It being a proper pot also adds to the realism of my plant which is good. Wasn't that expensive either which is a plus!

Anyway back to the base, what I am doing is creating a chamber within the pot which will be where all my electrical stuff will go. Then there will be a lid to this chamber to cover it up which is the base for my plant to sit on and leaves to slot into. Yesterday I got the base cut out, took me ages as I got the measurement for the inner circle of the pot wrong. The circle I cut was too big and I had to reduce it but not by too much otherwise the lid would just fall through the lip within the pot that I want to have it sit on because its at the perfect level for my plant to make it seem like its "planted". Today I shaped the base a lot better and drilled the necessary holes for the leaf stalks to stick into and for the wires on the motion sensor and the wires attached to the plant to go through and to the circuitry/arduino board within the pot.

Slight Progress

Not much time today as I had to meet with my tutor for 371 and I also had work. In the little time I did have though I did some soldering and wiring stuff... am getting a lot better and faster at it now which is coming in handy. I also made my head piece to the plant using the fold and slightly heated technique I played around with in the weekend. To attach it I'm thinking of just sewing it on putting the needle through the holes in the ex dino skeleton head. Should work... I hope!