TI-RSLK

Did I hear the word, "soldering," in Ayesha's presentation on element14?

Hi Mark
Yes there is some soldering involved to prep the boards ( motor drive, power distribution) and to prepare sensors and motors to connect to the robot chassis. Please let us know if you have a question on this.
Thanks
Ayesha

Ayesha,

More of a concern than a question. If professors/teachers want equipment to use to teach robotics outside of an Electrical Engineering context, the need to solder might be an inconvenience or worse (dangerous).

I understand that each instructor will have his or her own position on this, based on their exact instructional objectives.

Thanks,

Mark

Hi Mark,
Yes at this time we went with " more hands on experience of building and doing engineering preps" based on our feedback from educators.
Thanks for your interest, are you planning to teach the course, what do you intend to use the RSLK for ?

I'm evaluating alternatives, and your product just came to my attention a few days ago. Until then, I didn't know it existed.

I am familiar with a couple of alternatives, and have used one to teach middle and high school classes in robotics, and another as an adult student in a college class.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Let us know if you need any assistance.

Thanks

Ayesha

Hi Ayesha,

I have few concern while assembling the Power driver board with the motor. I am currently using the following module design- "https://www.pololu.com/product/3543" with MSP432 MCU.

I have gone through the TI RSLK learning module , soldered and connected based on the instructions provided in this PDF-"http://www.ti.com/lit/ml/swrp152/swrp152.pdf" 

Hello Dhivaker,

Please let us know your concerns.

We can provide some tips on soldering and assembly recommendations. 

Thanks

Ayesha

Hello Ayesha,

I have made necessary recommended connections between power board and MSP432 and I have added the encoder pair to the motor terminals but unfortunately I am not receiving voltage signal at M1 and M2 terminals of the encoder pair. I just want to make the chassis to run in forward direction in specified speed. So I have written this code and executed it. But I found that the motor is not spinning. I have also provided the code below . Could you please check to it and kindly help me out.

void Motor_InitSimple(void){
// Initializes the 6 GPIO lines and puts driver to sleep
// Returns right away
// initialize P1.6 and P1.7 and make them outputs

P1->SEL0 &= ~0x20;
P1->SEL1 &= ~0x20;
P1->DIR |= 0x20;
P2->SEL0 &= ~0x20;
P2->SEL1 &= ~0x20;
P2->DIR |= 0x20;
P3->SEL0 &= ~0x20;
P3->SEL1 &= ~0x20;
P3->DIR |= 0x20;
P3->OUT &= ~0x20;
}


void Motor_ForwardSimple(uint16_t duty){
// Drives both motors forward at duty (100 to 9900)

P1->OUT &= ~0x20;
P3->OUT |= 0x20;
uint16_t duty1=10000-duty;
while(1){
P2->OUT |= 0x20;
SysTick_Wait10ms(duty);
P2->OUT &= ~0x20;
SysTick_Wait10ms(duty1);
}
}

int main(void){
Clock_Init48MHz();
LaunchPad_Init();
//Bump_Init();
Motor_InitSimple();
while(1){
// Pause(); // start on SW1 or SW2
LaunchPad_Output(0x02);
Motor_ForwardSimple(5000);

}

}



Thanks,
Dhivaker.

Hi,

I'm doing a RoadTest of the TI-RSLK for element14 and found there is a PololuRomiChassisUsersGuide.pdf in the downloaded tirslk_maze_1_00_01/tirslk_maze_1_00_00/datasheets folder that describes the construction of the kit.

Also, the link to swrp152.pdf listed previously does not seem to work, but I was able to locate The Basic Kit Construction Guide.

www.ti.com/.../swrp249.pdf

I am not sure where this is located in the Curriculum though.

An alternative to soldering on the board, I suppose supplying headers for each connection rather than solder them might be something to look at. However, I believe it is a good idea for aspiring Engineers to know some soldering skills just to appreciate what they will be asking an assembler to do. But, there may be cases where they might have to create test fixtures or even proto boards themselves so these skills could come in handy at some point.