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My Illustrator class back at Penn State...

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IHS EV Project (part 2)

Software and Code:

Source codes: ihsEVMain.txt, ihsEVMotor.txt

Specifications: EVcompetitionRules (pdf), arduino-duemilanove-spec (pdf), arduino-duemilanove-schematics (pdf), Hbridge-sn754410-spec (pdf)

Arduino tutorial: I highly suggest you visit this site and spend a couple hours with the activities

Arduino Development Environment Setup:

1. Head to Arduino's download page and get your favorite client (we are demonstrating the Mac OS X 0014 client below)
2. Install/unzip
3. Open the application (Vista users need to run the .bat file)
4. RENAME the first tab to: ihsEVMain
5. Create a new tab and name it: ihsEVMotor
6. in ihsEVMain tab, paste in the code from ihsEVMain.txt
7. in ihsEVMotor tab, paste in the code from ihsEVMotor.txt
8. Click on the play button to verify the code
9. If you see "Binary sketch size: 3756 bytes (of a 14336 byte maximum)", congratulations! If not you need to re-copy/paste the source code.
10. Click on the save button to save your work. This is important to do often!
11. Once the EV is hooked up via USB, you can upload the code
12. HAVE FUN!

IHS EV Circuit here (pdf, quick and dirty Word mock-up)

Hope this helps and will aid in better understanding of the EV car concept in general. The code ihsEVMotor shouldn't be touched, and the only variables that we want to customize is in ihsEVMain. Those variables are int trackLength, and int rollingStop. Remember we not only want a perfect stop distance wise, we want the time of running to be precise also.

BONUS: This video is on the little LED lights counting down to launch, inspired by "The Dragster" in Cedar point. If you look closely, I first pressed the pushbutton on the Arduino micro-controller to reset the board. Then I pressed the pushbutton on the breadboard to start the EV. At the competition, a dowel rod should be used for the 2nd button. Enjoy!

IHS EV Project

This is done to help Indiana High School, my brother and his friends. IASD has served me very well and I think this is a good way to give back a little. IHS lacks a thorough electrical, micro architectural classes; the closest they have is Computer Science, which is good, but not entirely great for building circuitries required for this EV. Thank you Mrs. Baker for your hard work.

Lets get to the topic. This is the package sent to Wasil on Wednesday, March 14th, 2009.

The box contains a complete vehicle, but disassembled. The vehicle body was made with parts around the house including aluminum holiday container (previously contained assorted nuts), and couple smaller aluminum boxes that contained a wallet, and a B.U.M. watch i got back in 1997 (or so). The vehicle was heavy, about 3 lbs, but functional nevertheless.

The reason I did a prototype was 1) I needed to know what kind of logic is the most effective and 2) Something for the team to have as a backup plan (risk mitigation). The reason for 1) is that even though on paper and in pictures the car works perfectly, it doesn't mean that it will when it comes to realization.

For example, I planned to use 2xC batteries for the motor and the other 2xAA batteries for the Arduino microcontroller. It turns out that the H-bridge that I was using takes in 3V but outputs less than desired voltage to the motor (1.9V under load). The H-bridge spec calls for 4.5V minimum motor supply input for a good output. I guess the H-bridge logic for the motors has several resistances that lowers the overall output. So to fix this I had to use 3xAA (4.5V) for the motor and 1xAA for the microcontroller. I couldn't use the C batteries because I only have a battery case for 2xC, and 3xCs would be heavier than I would have liked. I also had to jerry-rigged the battery holders to fit 3xAAs together (picture below).

Be careful with the batteries. One wrong side, or connection, can be detrimental. So look twice before plugging things in, and if you're not sure look at these pictures. I also incorporated a switch to turn on, and off the batteries (picture below).

Note: For the microcontroller battery (1xAA), if you're not running the vehicle on the track, please take out the battery. Since it has a built in 5V regulator, it will drain the battery regardless of usage (picture below). This battery also is modded to only take ONE battery at one side. Failure to do so will burn your fingers off (true story!).

For testing on the computer, the USB cable provides sufficient power to the microcontroller. To test out the motor with USB, you will still need the motor supply (3xAA).

Power connections:

5V IN IC (Red wire from 1xAA battery) connects to the 'Vin' port on the microcontroller (picture below).

4.5V Supply (Red wire from 3xAA batteries) connects to the #8 leg VCC2 of the SN754110 IC on the breadboard. It does NOT go anywhere else (pictures below). Spec sheet here (pdf).

Ground (Black wire from the switch) connects to the grounding strip on either side of the bread board where most black wires are hooked up (picture highlight below).

This concludes the introduction to the EV, and how to connect them. Make sure the switch is OFF before connecting/disconnecting any wires! Stay tune for an update on the software side of things. In the meanwhile, check out the video below.

Old pics...

Our HDTV... Samsung 27" with 2x HDMI and capable of 720p/1080i. Soon I want a bigger one (52") that sports 1080p/120Hz refresh rate :). But give or take 1 year or so!

Below is how HD 720p looks like on a broadcast of the football game in 2006. Can you count how many people is in the stadium? Click on the picture and look how detailed it is! If I'm not mistaken, there was 108k+ people in the stadium for this game. Beaver Stadium at Penn State University is the 2nd largest stadium in the United States!


And at last, my beloved Honda Civic pictured in front of Heinz Field back in 2002. Heinz Field is the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the University of Pittsburgh Panthers.


Cheers!

Murtabak, and more Subie

Subie... Looking really good!

My roti canai/murtabak workspace... Can you see what kind of papers I am using? *wink*

New Tint on the Subie

For $200, not bad. It was originally $160 for all 5 windows, but the sunroof costed another $40. Not bad, it took them 1 hr from start to finish. Its 35% all around, both Missouri and Kansas street legal. This one dude came after us, took out his 20% he had on the front two for a 35%, he got pulled over twice by the Kansas highway patrol. Apparently they're pretty strict. I never ran into trouble in PA when I used to have my 5% (last 3 pictures from 2002).





Wax on.


Wax off.
Only had time to wax the front half of the car, next time (one of these days) I'll do the rest!

Old picture of my 2nd car, 1995 Honda Civic DX, 1.5L SOHC, the 40MPG little bugger. Sure brought back a lot of memories!

Mac Mini is here and few other things...

Mac Mini is here! It looks like new, no scratches, nothing. In fact I am typing on it right now!

Another surprise, Apple is giving away (for the cost of shipping) the new system that's coming out next week. Leopard, the next iteration of Mac OS X (10.5), will go on sale on 10/26/07 for $129. I'm getting it for $9.99+tax since I bought this refurbished Mac Mini after October.



Pretty sweet, especially when you compare to Microsoft. Microsoft giving away Vista because you bought a computer 2 weeks before it was out? HA!

I am using the 'pre-Leopard' setup to do some before and after benchmarks so I can publish at xlr8yourmac.com. While installing things, I came across a very intersting installer. Its for Adium X, the best instant messaging software there is. Its lightyears ahead of Trillian and very resource efficient to boot. Enjoy the pic!

Dissapointing package

The Wii is here! I'll be so happy, or not. After opening the package, the Wii turns out to be a worn out one. It said specifically in the description that its 'rarely used' but one of the hinge was very loose. And it is missing 2 parts to boot. This is NOT worth $100+ over retail. He'll get my email soon... On the other note, I went to Radio Shack and bought myself flux to aid my soldering. Flux basically creates an attraction to solder so its easier for the solder to stick. Pretty useful thing to do when dealing with fine electronics.

Thanksgiving surprise: Wii!

Hello again. I was thinking about my next trip to Indiana and how to make the most of it. The weather probably won't be too great to go barbeque or play outside, and lets face it, I don't want to go anywhere when my stomach is filled with lots and lots of turkey. Sorry Wasil, the turkey legs are mine!


So I went ahead and bought a Wii. Wasil and his 2 nakama (Luqman and Hamzah) wanted the 360 (obviously) but that leaves Hana and Muhsin with nothing. So to also accomodate them in the equation, I thought Wii would be perfect. Given the fact that Wiis are selling like hotcakes ($10 if you can find it in store right now) and its wide range of consumers (even Mak can play!), its a perfect solution to my Thanksgiving wish.

Actually I bought one at Wal-Mart (sold out in 1 day) right after they stocked it. Opened it, played it for a couple of hours. Took about 10 minutes to get used to the well-designed controls before I started enjoying the console.

There's another reason behind why I wanted a Wii - so I can do a little modification to it. I want to be able to run back-ups in case the original games got scratched (who knows when you have 5 little siblings... anything could happen). The modification requires an older 06-early-07 model to accomplish such feat without risking a "Wii-brick". On a side note, check out my e-bay sniping program. 2 seconds left... SNIPE.


I sold the new Wii to a fellow Cerner associate for $250. I figure I played the game enough to justify the +tax cost. I paid close to $270 when I bought it at Wal-Mart. So you think $380 is expensive? Sure. It came however with 2 additional controllers, valued $60. Well I view it like this: It will pay itself off. Oh yeah. Kinda funny how overpriced it is, but for such a high demand product, adding to it its value for being old, it's worth it.

Below is the magic chip. Shipment came as a '10% off coupon' in a small yellow envelop from Canada. Man those people sure knows how to be tricky! Check out how small it is!


Find Waldo! Where's Waldo? Look! There!

El chippo costed me $23 Washingtons, a little less than a genuine Wii game... good investment! Its as big as my thumbnail!


I'll definitely update on the progress of this project when the Wii gets here. Soldering iron here I come! Until then, cheers!

Pictures of our Subaru!

First of all ~

Selamat Hari Raya
Maaf Zahir Batin

After such a long break (sorry), here some the pictures of the Subaru! Currently the Subaru have about 500 miles on it. After further thinking, I decide to have its oil changed when it hits 1,000 miles. Although we're not supposed to until 3,000 miles, the car has been sitting at the lot for who knows how long (since 06) and hey, better be safe than sorry! Oh and the car also celebrated the raya with us (sorry Ford Focus!).





To be honest, we had our eyes on a Mitsubishi Lancer '08 GTS. But the dealership didn't want to sell it to me. They didn't even let me test drive! I came to Jack Miller just so Aishah can test drive a Subaru (to compare with my dad's Forester) and we were treated like kings. They deserve my money, I told myself... Hence the impulse decision of buying the car! Its a good decision, I could tell Aishah's confidence went up 1000% after 3 weeks of owning the car. That's the whole point of the whole purchase anyways.

The pictures are a little outdated as the Subiru (new nickname) wasn't tested under extreme conditions and looked clean and innocent. It went through a lot and is very dirty at the moment (it got rained out during the Raya weekend).