25. June 2009 by Sean.

Here’s a cool project using solar, boats and radio control.  Most impressive is the robot voice over techno music.  By the end you’ll be really cranked up to build your own solar boat out of household scraps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmDqklgQvj0

Posted in Solar Power | 3 Comments »

25. June 2009 by gmoney.

Sean and Dave launching protoboat for a last minute decision to throw the boat in the water for a navigation test.   Result: too windy for this clunker boat.  Lessons learned (again): need a lower profile boat, motors spaced wider apart for better steering control, and more efficient motors.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

9. June 2009 by Sean.

Well, we had our first navigation test this Sunday at 10:00am (Elk Lake - see Course #1 in the Courses page).  I got up at 6:00am to make some necessary adjustments (i.e. get it to work).  My neighbours must have thought I was a complete psychopath because I was walking around with the electronic guts and my laptop, walking exactly where the debug information told me to go.  Here’s what the electronics guts spits out when it’s hooked up to a laptop, each second:

NextCoord:+00000000001AB:+193TB:+238Mot1(L):+240 Mot2(R):+160 Dist:+00000.000000Lat:+00048.5xxxxLong:-00123.3xxxxLatN:+00048.5xxxxLongN:-00123.3xxxxRadius:+00000.000039LatDiff:+00000.01xxxxLongDiff:-00000.009xxxRawCor:+00000000045Cor:+00000000040
 which means..

Tracking co-ordinate #1;
Actual Bearing: 123 (out of 255 in proportion to 360 degrees)
Target Bearing: 238
Pulse Motor 1 at 240/255 duty cycle
Pulse Motor 2 at 160/255 duty cycle
Current Latitude: +00048.5xxxx
Current Longitude:-00123.3xxxx
Target Latitude: +00048.5xxxx
Target Longitude:-00123.3xxxx
Distance to next point [not working]
within 0.0004 degrees is close enough to tag the next point
Difference it Latitude:0.01
Difference in Longitude:0.009
Apply a correction (Left/Right differential duty cycle) of 40/255

We learned a few things:

1) Wind was enough to affect steering, so we’re going to set the props wider apart
2) Brushed motors create enough electrical noise to reset the board. So, we need to re-work the main board a bit to add in the noise reduction components - hopefully just a capacitor between the pos/neg pins of the microprocessor
3) As we’ve known from the outset, the biggest challenge is going to be to get enough thrust out of the motors to drive a big boat with very little current (400mA).

Thanks to everyone who showed up!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

4. June 2009 by gmoney.

The Proto-boat got a sand job and coat of paint last night.  I used the old fashioned Interlux anti-fouling paint.

If our corporate sponsors ever fork out their promised dough, we might be able to afford some Micron technology paint. (See http://www.yachtpaint.com/usa/).  We need to squeeze every last efficiency possible out of this beast if we hope to move anywhere close to our target speed (2 Nm)

Posted in Fiberglass construction | 3 Comments »