FABRICATION
You're about to fabricate a electronic-based product, just as a technologist may in a manufacturing company. The quality of your product is directly dependent on the time and care you take with the product assembly!
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It's exciting to start, but take your time, and enjoy the creation process and READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. If you have any questions of comments to improve them, please feel free to connect with me with your idea's
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Once complete, you will not only have a competition ready sumo-bot, but also a very flexible platform for electronics and programming experimentation which have boundless applications! Enhancements are encouraged!
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I hope you enjoy the build and HAVE FUN!!
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-Craig
TOOLS
You will need these tools to assemble your kit:
Needle-nose pliers
Safety Glasses
Quality Soldering Iron
Side-cutters
Solder
Ruler or Vernier Caliper
SOLDERING
How do you solder?? Here's a great video to get you up to speed on making a workable solderjoint.
Here's a couple notes not mentioned in this video:
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When pulling your iron away from the solderjoint, drag it up the shaft of the wire. This will stop the solder from "spiking" toward your iron.
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To clean the flux off after you've finished soldering, scrub the board with a toothbrush and 90% isopropyl alcohol. This will remove the flux from the board.
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Professionals prefer to "snip" the excess wire off BEFORE soldering, leaving just a couple mm above the board. Snipping AFTER soldering can cause micro-fractures in the solder joint which can cause degradation of the joint after a while.
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Avoid breathing solder fumes, and wash your hands well afterwards to remove the solder and flux residue.
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If you do burn your finger, place it quickly on your wet sponge to cool it down. ( Not your mouth! )
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Hold the wires as you clip them to avoid them shooting across the room.
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ALWAYS WEAR SAFETY GLASSES!!
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PARTS LIST
Check your parts!
Four 100 ohm ( Brown Black Brown Gold )
Four 4700 ohm ( Yellow Purple Red Gold )
One 330 ohm ( Orange Orange Brown Gold )
Three QRD1114 Optical Reflectance Sensors
As you remove your parts and check inventory, you should place them in a suitable storage device such as egg-tray or muffin-tin. Most parts are small and can easily roll away! Feel free to check the checkboxes as you locate them.
Step 1: RESISTORS
Install the resistors
SAFETY WARNING: To avoid eye injury when you clip off excess leads, wear safety glasses and hold end of wire when clipping!
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NOTE: No lead should extend more than 1/8” above the circuit board after it has been soldered and cut off.
Step 1-1
Bend Resistors
Carefully remove the resistors from the tape, and bend the leads downward to fit the circuit board pads
Step 1-2
Install R1, R2, and R3
Place
R1 ( Orange, Orange, Brown, Gold ) 330 ohms
R2 ( Yellow, Purple, Red, Gold ) 4700 ohms
R3 ( Brown, Black, Brown, Gold ) 100 ohms
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Polarity does not matter. Place them flush with board solder and clip excess lead.
Step 1-3
Install R9 R10 & R14
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R9 ( Yellow Purple Red Gold ) 4700 ohms
R10 ( Brown Black Brown Gold ) 100 ohms
R14 ( Brown Black Brown Gold ) 100 ohms
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Place them flush to board, solder and clip excess leads. Polarity not important
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RR7 ( Yellow Purple Red Gold ) 4700 ohms
R8 ( Brown Black Brown Gold ) 100 ohms
R13 ( Yellow Purple Red Gold ) 4700 ohms
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Place them flush to board and solder and clip. Polarity not important
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Step 1-4
Install R7 R8 & R13
Install the capacitors
Step 2:
CAPACITORS
Do these 6 Steps...
Step 2-1
Prepare Capacitors
Carefully remove monolythic (104 pf ) capacitors from tape.
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Two capacitors need to have long leads!
Step 2-2
Install C1 and C2
Place
C1 104pF Monolythic Cap
C2 104pF Monolythic Cap
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Polarity does not matter. Place them flush with board solder and clip excess lead.
Step 2-3
Install C8 and C9
Place
C8 104pF Monolythic Cap
C9 104pF Monolythic Cap
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Polarity does not matter. Place them flush with board solder and clip excess lead.
Step 2-4
Install C12 and C13
Place
C12 104pF Monolythic Cap
C13 104pF Monolythic Cap
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Polarity does not matter. Place them flush with board solder and clip excess lead.
Step 2-5
Place
C5 104pF Monolythic Cap
GND 104pF Monolythic Cap
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Polarity does not matter. Place them flush with board solder and clip excess lead.
Step 2-6
Install C3
Place
C3 1000uF Electrolytic Capacitor
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Caution: Polarity matters! Negative lead ( with white stripe on case ) towards top!
Place flush with board, solder and clip excess lead.
Step 4:
SWITCHES
Do these 2 Steps...
Step 5:
EDGE DETECTORS
Photo-reflective sensors
Do these 4 Steps...
Step 6:
ISP CONNECTOR
Do this Step...
Step 7:
MICROCONTROLLER
Do these 5 Steps...
Step 8:
MOTOR CONTROLLER
Do this Step...
Step 9:
BRASS WIRE CONNECTORS
Do these 7 Steps...
Step 10:
BATTERY PACK
Do these 2 Steps...
Since your soldering is largely complete, this would be a good time to (optionally) bring out the isopropyl Alcohol and toothbrush and scrub the flux residue off of your circuit boards!
Step 11:
GEARBOX FABRICATION
With the TAMIYA gearbox, you can decide to build several different gear ratio's. The highest ratio gives you the most torque ( pushing power ) and the quickest stopping, but is the slowest.
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The lower gear ratio's give you more speed, but less torque.
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Note: Different gear ratio's may reverse the direction of the FORWARD drive, so you may have to modify your program to compensate.
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Here is a video explanation of building the 114.7:1 version of the gearbox.
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114.7 : 1 Gear ratio (Recommended)
344.2 : 1 Gear ratio
114.7 : 1 Shown
Step 12:
MOUNTING GEARBOX TO PCB
Do these 4 Steps...
Step 13:
BASEPLATE AND BATTERY
Using two screws from your Gearbox kit, attach the baseplate onto the bottom of the gearbox using the tabs of the gearbox as shown.
Next, insert the O-rings onto each wheel and push them onto the gearbox shafts
Apply the foam tape ( if not already applied ) to the top front of the battery holder as shown.
Use the two mounting pins to install the battery holder as shown.
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Press the 6AA battery back to the sticky foam as shown here
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To change the batteries, remove the pins and pull out the holder and pack together.
Put your allen key, used for tightening up your gearbox, in this little hole on the left side of your chassis. This will come in handy if your gearbox grub-screw comes loose!
FINAL CHECK:
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Have a close look to make sure your kit looks similar to these!