Another session working on the PiWars robot for 2019. Matt has been 3D printing a new case.
I must say its looking pretty good. The robot now officially has a new name the “IMS Rover”.
The team suffered only a minor set back. It was so soon after the robot got a new housing and a new name that a strange smell started to emanate from “IMS Rover”, maybe we should have called it “Sparky”.
After some sniffing Matt and Jon discovered the front LED ring was rather hot and melting the case. Unfortunately during the troubleshooting process the 12V from the battery pack got applied to the Pi and a small fire was seen. So long Pi. I was practically useless and was just taking photos of the aftermath for the blog and partially for my own amusement 🙂
The Pi is dead. Long live the Pi.
Never fear! Matt had a spare Pi ready to go and got to work getting it installed. The Pi is dead, long live the Pi.
Rescue process
It wasn’t long before the electrical gremlins returned, as IMS Rover started eating the Raspberry PI cameras. Fingers crossed it doesn’t return! Moving swiftly forward the IMS Rover has now been helpfully labelled so we know which way to set it off 🙂
It’s the front!
Firstly one has to mention the AMAZING makerspace floor in the new downstairs area, it is looking fantastic indeed. Many hours have been spent sanding and varnishing. Oh yeah and the team now sort of has a maze. It needs a little more work.
Maze – Kinda
Some chop sawing later and a new maze was ready, then came the fun of trying to get IMS Rover to navigate itself around the course.
OK, so not looking too hot just yet, some more work is required here X-D
Until next time… Ta ta.
