CCNY Hackathon and Workshop

Over the last two Fridays, a collective of CCNY science groups, the Clubs of Grove, held a microcontroller programming training workshop and hackathon in the Steinman Building. During the training session, students went through an hour-long training presentation and then were assigned different tasks to program and build.

Students were broken up into teams to work on their tasks. Building tasks started simple, and then increased in difficulty. For instance, students had to use a photoresistor to control the brightness of an LED. However, even starting with these simple tasks gave students a chance to learn about electronics prototyping hardware like breadboards, through-hole resistors, LEDs, and other sensing components.

 

Eventually teams had to figure out how to use more sophisticated components like ultrasonic sensors, temperature sensors, and different types of motors. It was a crash course in prototyping and programming. No experience was necessary to participate, and there were things to do for makers of all skill levels.

 

The following Friday, February 27th, there was a hackathon, in which teams were assigned build a project in response to a theme. The theme was “home improvement,” and the competition was fierce, merciless, and fun, of course.

The team of Yours Truly contemplated several types of home improvement projects. First we ruled out trying to do “obvious” projects, like using sensors to turn on lights, using a temperature sensor to control apartment heat, and other projects we thought others would think of.

Eventually, we decided that a refrigerator was the device in the home that consumed the most energy, and it would be useful to create a more energy efficient refrigerator. Our fridge would have many energy-saving features. First, it would be connected to a wall of the apartment adjacent to the outdoors, so it would be able to use cold air directly in the refrigeration chambers, when the air outside was cold enough. For instance, in the suburbs where people have garages, many people store food in their cold garages in the winter. Free refrigeration!

Also, our fridge would have separate compartments for refrigerating food. For instance, is your fridge “full” all of the time? Perhaps you only need half the space in your fridge to chill all your food. In our fridge, the main compartment would be broken up into three different areas. The shelf of each compartment would also be pressure sensitive, so that if there was no food in that compartment, the compartment would not be cooled, thereby saving energy. Also, each compartment base would rotate to allow uses to evenly distribute their food for proper chilling. And finally, to open each compartment, the user would only have to open a small door, maybe 1/3 the size of a full fridge door. This would allow less cool air to escape during each opening.

It’s a refrigerator. Can’t you tell?

The competition building a disco house.

Each room is triggered with sensors to activate a lighting system. Prototyping cardboard courtesy of Domino’s Pizza.

 

 

In the end, we came in second place. We lagged behind in points for “Business Potential” and Team 3/4/2’s home security system with “Intruder Rave Alert” beat us out. Well, hey, there’s always next build!

 

 

Fighting fire with code and design

Over the last week, FIRST Robotics began to really dig in to preparing for the Trinity College Fire Fighting Robot competition. We are now working on assembling a number of robot prototypes that will be programmed to navigate our practice maze. Members in our group have been delegated different tasks; some people are researching and writing navigational code, some are researching hardware, and some are designing CAD parts for the robot bodies.

ThomasBot prototype.

There is now so much work to be done!

Different teams working on different tasks.

I have been assigned to work on the pseudocode for writing a wall-following algorithm. I have considered a couple different strategies for how the robot will make decisions to move through the maze; however, each pattern of decisions has drawbacks. In the end, we will probably combine the approaches of at least two or more algorithms.

3D printing: fun approaches infinity as x grows infinitely large

Yeah, drilling is serious.

Besides our Fire Fighting Competition, other groups are going to work on other non-competitive projects, such as a quadcopter and 3D printing. So, even if you don’t want to participate in fighting fires, you can still algorithmatize with FIRST Robotics.

Nov 20 Robotics Meetup: Soldering Workshop

Last week we had a special robotics meetup. FIRST Robotics hosted a soldering workshop so that students could practice their soldering skills. Thomas and Chen gave a short presentation covering some soldering basics, and the corresponding PowerPoint will be posted on our site.

Now for the best part! After receiving their soldering briefing, teams of students were tasked to build the amazing, the everlasting, the mindblowing, Arduino LED cube!

Stare into its LED matrix. It knows no end and no beginning.

Teams worked frantically under extreme time constraints to build the most perfect, the most beautiful 3 x 3 x 3 LED cube. The cube would be connected to an Arduino microcontroller that would alternatively turn LEDs on and off.

Teams needed to make a cardboard jig to hold their LEDs while soldering, and then solder together a total of 9 LEDs to create a 3 x 3 x 3 LED matrix. To protect the LEDs from circuit current, each LED is wired in series with a 220 ohm resistor and transistors are also used as switches to turn each layer of the LED cube on and off.

It was an intense session of “speed soldering” because there was not enough time to finish all the projects. Perhaps people can come back in the next couple weeks and finish the projects.

Thanks to everyone who came. It was a great way to participate in our engineering community.

Don’t poke holes in cardboard with your soldering iron 🙂

Checking out the LED cube schematic. Where do those transistors go?

Next week: soldering in a well-ventilated room.

Standing room only, ladies and gentlemen!

Oct 23 Robotics Meetup

It is high midterm season, and you might think this would keep Roboters from robot-ing. But no, my friend; the build goes on. We must build. Roboters do not tire. We must build.

Last Thursday’s meetup was a force field of coding, temperature sensing, servo rotating, and hardware modifying. Novices and learned builders alike found projects to work on. I think many find FIRST Robotics as a place to practice building skills at whatever level she or he is at.

Let’s check in with last week’s progress.

This gentleman is working on a temperature sensor. His team has connected a temperature sensor to their Arduino interface. Now they are working on adjusting the sensitivity of the sensor.

That sensor looks sensitive! Now, this is his partner. He is sensitive too:

Who took all the tools?

Keep your eyes on the master of the build.

These folks are practicing the basics of coding with Arduino. Check in on them in a couple weeks and they’ll be pros.

Finally, here’s Saqib adjusting the nozzle of the 3D printer. Be careful! As they say, “measure twice, cut once.” Once the 3D printer is complete, our club can print custom parts and accessories for our projects.

A brief look into FIRST Robotics Thursday meetups

Our Thursday meetups are a flurry of activity. Here are two brief video clips that give you a look into what goes on at our meetups.

Watch Luky explain how our team is trying to set up our Motorshield to power our project’s motors:

Our club president Chen is working on setting up our club’s 3D printer. Here is brief clip of him explaining what he’s doing:

Oct 16th Robotics Meetup

New things are developing at FIRST Robotics. Our E-board has been ordering new supplies and this week we have a new stream of components and tools to work on our Arduino projects with. Our club continues to attract new members, and newcomers are able to join on to existing teams.

Team of roboters building a tank.

Beyond trying to learn robotics, a key part of the Thursday meetups is learning how to work as a team. A wise engineer once said, “There is no ‘I’ in ROBOT.” I think we can glean what he was trying to say. All of our club activities involve working with others. And a happy team is a team where each group member feels like she or he has made a contribution. In FIRST Robotics, each Arduino project is built by a small team of students, (I think of us as “Roboters”),  and each team’s purpose is build up its collective skills. At this stage in our club, it does not matter if a single robot is built. What is more important, is that each team member gets to practice improving his or her skills.

All hands on deck.

 

Some other things that are important to note: keep your eyes peeled for future Tau Beta Pi hack-a-thon events. I have received word that our school’s engineering honors society plans to host more all-day robotics building events.

In the meantime, keep building, keep coding, and keep coming back to FIRST Robotics. FIRST Robotics has great momentum so far this semester, and more good things are in the works.

Please also check out our Mentorship page which has details about becoming a robotics mentor to high school students at Gregorio Luperon High School in upper Manhattan.

Oct 9th Robotics Meetup

The CCNY First Robotics Club met last Thursday to continue working on its projects. By learning code and hardware, we are preparing to compete in the FIRST Robotics competition, which will be held in January 2015. Word has it that the competition will be to build a robot that is able to navigate a maze and put out a “fire” in the center, (a burning candle).

During the meetup it was announced that members would be traveling to the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers National Conference and Career Fair in Philadelphia, PA, October 16th to the 18th. Our board is organizing transportation, and it is estimated that round-trip travel tickets could be $16 per person. Accommodations for staying overnight are also being discussed.

If you are interested in going to this conference, please email our group here: firstroboticccny@ccny.cuny.edu or ccnyfirstrobotics.1@gmail.com

You can learn more about this conference here: http://www.saseconnect.org/sase-national-conference-career-fair-2014

Special Event: CCNY FIRST Robotics at Tau Beta Pi Hackathon

This last weekend, the Engineering Honors Society, Tau Beta Pi, held a hack-a-thon in Steinman Hall. Serendipitously, several members of CCNY FIRST Robotics met up and created a team to compete in the 7-hour hack-a-thon.

The build theme was “Productivity” and competitors had to build a “productive” ‘bot with a supplied Arduino kit that was:

• Creative
• Original
• Able to change the world
• And, I suppose it had to be “productive” too

After some deliberation, our team chose to build a binary clock, and the drama to build it came down to the very last binary minute.

Coding the binary clock.

While two of our team members worked on creating flawless Arduino codes, two other members set about soldering together an LED display for our timeless clock. The body of our clock was made from an impenetrable bar soap box.

Austere, modern, binary.

Our finished clock featured a four-segment binary display, capable of displaying the hour of Earth’s time, in binary, (2^3, 2^2, 2^1, 2^0 readout, left to right). The clock also had an alarm feature, and would play “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” (or was it “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”) every twelve seconds. Naturally, the finished clock also had a motion sensor attached to it and if the user got too close, the alarm would also trigger.

If you approach me, I’ll sing to you.

Each team faced difficult questioning from the judges, and there was much hooting and hollering. In the end, the judges judged, and our sweet binary clock did not win. Another team that built a rotating coffee pot/home security system beat us out, but it was a hard won victory for the other team because we gave them some stiff competition.

We can’t wait for the next hack-a-thon!

Explain your build!

October 2nd Robotics Meetup

The CCNY FIRST Robotics Club met on Thursday, Oct. 2nd to continue work on our Arduino projects. Each group wrote code and manipulated hardware to try and get their Arduino projects to come to life.

Roboters crunching code.

Our group found that we are still not ready to build our project, which is to construct a system of motors to drive a small car. In engineering, a lesson that I’ve learned many times, (and sometimes keep forgetting), is that you cannot sit down and begin to just build. First, you need to define a problem that you are trying to solve. In our case, our problem is that we would like to build a small car-robot, and we need a couple of motors properly connected to a programmed board. Ok, done. We have defined our problem.

However, now we need to acquire the materials we will need to solve this problem. We found that we still only have about half of the materials that we need, (most of which are tools). So, next week we’ll bring in our needed tools and get to work.

I learn in electronics building, that everything always takes longer than you plan. Especially when you are prototyping a project for the first time, or working in a new situation where you don’t have access to the tools you’re used to.

Keep going Roboters! Keep building!

The E-board getting executive.

September 18th FIRST Robotics Meetup

Roboters closely inspect a breadboard.

This week FIRST Robotics club began work on Arduino projects. Several teams were formed and each team set about to industriously develop a robotics project using Arduino. CCNY students of all skill levels were encouraged to participate. Whether you’re an Arduino veteran or noobie, there is an Arduino project waiting for you.

My group began writing code to control DC motors that will drive a small car, or “tank” (if you’d like to get militaristic about it). We have written out the code to instruct the motors to activate our tank wheels. Now we are set with the task of rounding up some accessories to prototype our tank. We need to build a box with wheels to test out our circuit, and after we have developed the project, we could possibly 3D print some custom parts/bling accessories for our tank.

Default prototype wheels.

Welcome to the Arduino compiler.

Four human heads are better than one robot.

Stay tuned and see what develops!