Tank Drive Car

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by Hugh Meyer

Excellent point! I didn't think of that... Thanks Ether.

I will try that point with the students...

Any ideas for a good supplier of a centered spring return pot?

-Hugh

Ether said it exactly.

If a student has a hard time thinking of clockwise/counterclockwise, I say the following to them: "place your index finger on the front of the knob (part of the knob farthest from you), and your thumb on the back of the knob (part closest to you). Now, the front of the knob (your index finger) represents the part of the robot farthest from you - regardless of which direction the robot is facing. The back of the knob (your thumb) represents the part of the robot closest to you - regardless of robot orientation." That works better for some students. It's really depends on the person as to how they sort things out in their mind, but the knob keeps things much more consitent regardless of robot orientation.

We looked like crazy for an off-the-shelf spring-loaded knob. We couldn't find one. If anyone knows of one, please let me know.

We had to make our own spring-loaded knob out of a potentiometer. We did the spring loading by drilling a hole into the knob then running some surgical tubing from the hole to a screw in our control board about 10 inches away. It was a bit crude, but it worked. We wanted to create a better solution eventually, but you know how it goes when you have a million other things to do to get the robot shipped and the current solution works.