This week I spend a lot of time trying to get the track leveled, so the Bogies don't get their switch lever jammed as well as widening portions of the track to avoid the Bogies getting stuck.
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| Figure 4: The change in width of test track, which results in the bogie to get stuck. |
There was a problem with one of the bogies that resulted in the bogie to constantly go to station 1 (the inner loop) even when the outer loop program was installed. The issue was that the left hall effect sensor was not reading the magnet, reading the magnet allows the lever switch to activate. In this case, the hall effect sensor was more than the minimum distance away from the magnet. I added two washers to extend the hall effect sensor, this is a short term solution. I plan to redesign the hall effect sensor bracket to avoid constant breaking as well as come up with a way to adjust the distance from the magnet to the sensor.
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| Figure 1: At this distance the hall effect sensor was not reading the magnet. |
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| Figure 2: Short term solution to bring hall effect sensor closer to magnet. |
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| Figure 3: New distance where hall effect sensor reads magnet, after installing washers. |
I was able to get 3 bogies assembled and properly wired to run on the track. One thing to take note is that the pins on the wires easily come out of the slots on the shield connected to the Arduino. In cases as small as changing the battery, one should always double check to see if all the pins are in the slots. There were a few times when we would test the bogie again after a 45 minute lunch break and it won't work the same, this was due to some of the pins coming out.
Figure 5,6,7: Working Bogies labeled 1,2,3
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