pidrogen

Sheep-pen-ator 3000

After a great deal of thought, I have finally settled on the approach I’m going to try for Shepherds Pi. The problem for me has been that the layout of the arena favours the ability to approach the sheep sometimes from the side, and sometimes end-on. So I hope I have built a design thatContinue reading “Sheep-pen-ator 3000”

PJD is ready for the farm!

We’ve reached a major milestone. PJD is ready for the competition! Well, the base robot is ready, but none of the game specific parts or game specific software have been done yet. Take a look here to see more details. Getting that video wasn’t all that easy. We ended up writing software to keep DoofusContinue reading “PJD is ready for the farm!”

Sheep Skelington

A Poem…

Alas, poor Old McDoofus,He is no longer red,For what he took for a nice warm bath,Was actually paint stripper instead! You’re welcome. :o)

PJD’s Robot Control Board

When I was building P21 I promised myself that I would not build another circuit on stripboard. As a result, I started designing PJD’s control board in KiCAD. But then I realised that large amounts of the circuit were untested, and I wondered if I might design a lovely shinny new PCB that wouldn’t workContinue reading “PJD’s Robot Control Board”

Smaller Mecanums

I always felt that the mecanum wheels we use on P21 were too large; they’re about 100mm diameter. I think they are not really suited to delicate autonomous manoeuvres. Over Christmas I decided to gamble on buying a set of these from Pimoroni… These wheels are cheaper than ones I’ve seen before (£24 for aContinue reading “Smaller Mecanums”

Mk2 Chassis

Back in December we blogged that our Mk1 chassis was too slow, so we had started development of Mk2. Well, here it is! In this design, the motors drive the track sprockets directly, with no reduction gearing. This results in a top speed of 1.2m/s; the same as P21. Hopefully that will be fast enough.Continue reading “Mk2 Chassis”

Printer back online

Our 3D printer had New Year’s Day off. But now it has a new hot end thermistor; so it’s back to the grindstone. It’s printed some chassis components for PJD’s new motor layout. Team PiDrogen is back on track! :0) Happy New Year folks!

Printer demands a New Year break.

This is going to slow PiDrogen development down. 😕

Progress Update

The chaps at PiWars HQ want an update… So, here it is in a blog post. PJD Mk1 has been built with some temporary electronics (which allow it to be driven by RC). We’ve been driving it around; and basically it works fine. Even the slightly risky 3D printed crown gears seem to be holdingContinue reading “Progress Update”