Hello, I am a new FAE. I am Tompa, a new FAE.
I joined Macnica as a new graduate and have been learning about circuit design and mounting while experiencing manufacturing through production training. When I was a student, I majored in organic chemistry, and since I started with no knowledge of electrical and electronics, I often had a hard time.
Therefore, this article introduces what I have learned about circuit design and implementation while experiencing manufacturing in production practice.
And finally, this is the final installment. In the previous articles (evaluation of DC/DC converters),
I introduced things related to DC/DC converters, but this time, I will introduce some other things I worked on during the training. Please enjoy seeing what we did during the training.
Introduction of the products
In the articles from the first to the fifth issue, I have introduced what I learned about circuit design through the fabrication practice, but I have not introduced the fabricated products in detail. It is a little late, but what I was fabricating was a line trace car. A line-trace car is an automatic car that runs along lines drawn on the ground, and this time I made a car that runs automatically on a course with black lines drawn on a white board.
Figure 1: The line-trace car we fabricated
This is the actual line-trace car. Infrared and optical sensors were used as sensors to read the black lines, which are the key to the car. An ultrasonic sensor was also used to detect obstacles placed in the middle of the course.
The car consists of two stages, with the microcontroller (Arduino) and batteries on the first stage, and the circuit board introduced so far on the second stage. As for the car body, I did not think too much about the wiring between the sensor and the microcontroller, and as a result, as you can see in the photo, the wiring was crowded and the car ended up looking awkward.
Programming
In order to build a line-track car, it is necessary not only to build the circuit board but also to program it. In the case of a line-track car, it is necessary to use a microcomputer to control the car's movement based on the signals sensed by each sensor. As I had never touched programming before, I had no idea how to proceed, but I was told that I should first create a flowchart.
Figure 2: Part of the flowchart created
A flowchart is a kind of flow chart in which program instructions are written as shown in Figure 2. Creating a flowchart has the advantage that the flow of the programming process can be understood, and programming can be done smoothly.
In fact, for me, who was not familiar with programming, the flowchart was like a signpost.
Figure 3: Part of the program I created
With the flowchart, I was able to visualize in which order and what kind of program I needed to put together, and I think I managed to complete the program.
Then, what kind of control was actually performed? I would like to introduce some of the control details.
Let me introduce some of the control details.
Figure 4: Outline of line trace control
The most important parts of this control are line detection and motor control. Therefore, in order for the car to always run on the line, a sensor in front of the car detects where the car is in relation to the line, and the microcontroller controls the motor based on the signal from the sensor.
Briefly, if only the right sensor detects the black line, the left motor is turned more strongly, and if only the left sensor detects the black line, the right motor is turned more strongly. By making such control more detailed, we tried to make the running as smooth as possible. In reality, the car ran a little wobbly, but it was able to run on a solid line.
Points of particular interest
Next, I would like to introduce some of the points that I devised in creating this line-trace car.
I made the car change its speed manually, just like a manual car. I like cars, but I also wanted to make the car run at the optimum speed for the course by changing the speed. The method is simple, but we installed three feedback resistors in the DC/DC converter at the front of the motor so that three different voltages can be supplied by means of switches.
Figure 5: Switch on board (left), DC/DC converter circuit diagram (right)
As described in the article " Part 5: Evaluation of DC/DC Converters," when we checked the output waveforms with an oscilloscope, we were able to output three different voltages as we had hoped. I was also able to successfully change the speed of the car accordingly. It was not that difficult, but I was happy to be able to achieve what I was aiming for.
Conclusion
Although this is the last story I have to tell, I was able to successfully complete a line trace car in the production training. In this training, I experienced programming in addition to the main task of power supply design, and I realized how difficult it is to design and make things, as well as learning various things. In the future, I would like to make the most of this experience and become an FAE that designers can rely on.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has read this far. Thank you very much!
The Journey to My First Circuit Design Article List
・ Types of DC/DC converters
・ Selection of DC/DC converters
・ DC/DC converter board design
・Implementation of DC/DC converters
・ Evaluation of DC/DC converters
・ Extras
New Engineer's Blush Blog Articles