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ENCE461- Wacky Racers Solved
1 Introduction
The purpose of this assignment is to design, build, and program an embedded system using an ARM microcontroller and surface mount technology.
The goal for each group of four students is to build a remote controlled vehicle (the Wacky Racer) and its controller (the Wacky Hat). At the conclusion of the assignment there will be a dastardly race!
Each group is comprised of two sub-groups of two students. One of these subgroups constructs the Wacky Racer and the other constructs the Wacky Hat. You may be asking why is the Wacky Hat called the Wacky Hat? Well, a hat that controls a remote vehicle using head motions is not an ordinary hat!
2 Requirements
The following requirements are mandatory if you wish to maximise your marks.
2.1 Wacky racer
1. The chassis is to be constructed by each group. These can be 3-D printed, constructed from Perspex or wood, etc. A standard chassis is available from the Electronics Lab technician (Diego Ramirez). The electronics must be visible on top of the chassis.
2. Have a standard working bump sensor (supplied).
3. Locomotion can only use two 6V DC motors (supplied).
4. Everything must be powered from a single 5-cell NiMH battery pack (supplied).
5. Use a single four layer printed circuit board of dimension 85mm×64mm.
6. Use an ARM microcontroller (Atmel SAM4S8).
7. Drive the motors using H-bridges (Texas Instruments DRV8833 dual H-bridge is recommended).
8. Regulate the nominal battery voltage to 5V with a buck regulator IC (ADP2302ARDZ-
50).
9. Be decorated with an LED tape (supplied) controlled by the MCU.
10. Use a USB interface for debugging.
11. Use a serial wire debug interface for MCU programming/debugging.
12. Have adequate battery fusing and reverse polarity protection.
13. Have a sleep button.
14. If the battery voltage drops below 5V, an LED should flash and high power draw devices should be disabled.
15. Interface to the Wacky Hat with a Nordic nRF24 SMD radio module.
16. Have four jumper selectable radio channels.
17. Have a mounted RFID card (supplied) that can be read by the Wacky ramps.
18. Be humorous.
Each Wacky Racer can have a dastardly means of hindering another team’s Wacky Racer. However, you cannot:
• Damage or destroy another Wacky racer
• Damage the venue
• Injure a spectator
• Jam the radio signals
2.2 Wacky hat
1. Construct a Wacky Hat that contains all the electronics.
2. Everything must be powered from a single 5-cell NiMH battery pack (supplied).
3. Have adequate battery fusing and reverse polarity protection.
4. Use a single four layer printed circuit board of dimension 85mm×64mm.
5. Use an ARM microcontroller (Atmel SAM4S8).
6. Regulate the nominal 6V battery voltage to 5V with a buck regulator IC (ADP2302ARDZ-
50).
7. Be decorated with an LED tape (supplied) controlled by the MCU.
8. Use an I2C IMU (MPU-9250) for head motion detection.
9. Use a USB interface for debugging.
10. Use a serial wire debug interface for MCU programming/debugging.
11. Have a joystick in case the IMU does not work.
12. Have a sleep button.
13. If the battery voltage drops below 5V, an LED should flash and high power draw devices should be disabled.
14. Play sound when the bumper is hit.
15. Interface to the Wacky Racer with a Nordic nRF24 SMD radio module.
16. Have four jumper selectable radio channels.
17. Be humorous.
3 Assignment schedule
The planned activities for the timetabled labs in the Embedded Systems Lab (ESL) are:
Week Assistance Assessment
T1-1
Altium tutorial 1 (schematics)
T1-2
Altium help
Schematic submission for review
T1-3
Schematic review
T1-4
Altium tutorial 2 (PCB)
T1-5
Altium help
PCB submission 1
T1-6
Altium help
PCB submission 2
B-1
(break)
B-2
(break)
B-3
(break)
T2-1 General
T2-2 General Blinky
T2-3 General IMU/motors
T2-4 General Radio control
T2-5 General Functionality
T2-6 Competition Competition, critique
Notes:
1. There there may be a 6–10 day delay for the PCBs to be manufactured from the time of submission. You will then need to book an assembly session in the SMT lab provided you have done the SMT lab induction.
2. Do not underestimate the blinky milestone. It requires having a functional PCB with a microcontroller that turns on properly, a functional toolchain and the ability to download code into the microcontroller’s flash memory.
4.1 Milestones
There are five milestones. To achieve the associated marks, they must be demonstrated to a T.A. by the end of the lab for your allotted stream. If you need an exception to this, see Ben Mitchell with a very good reason. The milestone requirements are:
1 Introduction
The purpose of this assignment is to design, build, and program an embedded system using an ARM microcontroller and surface mount technology.
The goal for each group of four students is to build a remote controlled vehicle (the Wacky Racer) and its controller (the Wacky Hat). At the conclusion of the assignment there will be a dastardly race!
Each group is comprised of two sub-groups of two students. One of these subgroups constructs the Wacky Racer and the other constructs the Wacky Hat. You may be asking why is the Wacky Hat called the Wacky Hat? Well, a hat that controls a remote vehicle using head motions is not an ordinary hat!
2 Requirements
The following requirements are mandatory if you wish to maximise your marks.
2.1 Wacky racer
1. The chassis is to be constructed by each group. These can be 3-D printed, constructed from Perspex or wood, etc. A standard chassis is available from the Electronics Lab technician (Diego Ramirez). The electronics must be visible on top of the chassis.
2. Have a standard working bump sensor (supplied).
3. Locomotion can only use two 6V DC motors (supplied).
4. Everything must be powered from a single 5-cell NiMH battery pack (supplied).
5. Use a single four layer printed circuit board of dimension 85mm×64mm.
6. Use an ARM microcontroller (Atmel SAM4S8).
7. Drive the motors using H-bridges (Texas Instruments DRV8833 dual H-bridge is recommended).
8. Regulate the nominal battery voltage to 5V with a buck regulator IC (ADP2302ARDZ-
50).
9. Be decorated with an LED tape (supplied) controlled by the MCU.
10. Use a USB interface for debugging.
11. Use a serial wire debug interface for MCU programming/debugging.
12. Have adequate battery fusing and reverse polarity protection.
13. Have a sleep button.
14. If the battery voltage drops below 5V, an LED should flash and high power draw devices should be disabled.
15. Interface to the Wacky Hat with a Nordic nRF24 SMD radio module.
16. Have four jumper selectable radio channels.
17. Have a mounted RFID card (supplied) that can be read by the Wacky ramps.
18. Be humorous.
Each Wacky Racer can have a dastardly means of hindering another team’s Wacky Racer. However, you cannot:
• Damage or destroy another Wacky racer
• Damage the venue
• Injure a spectator
• Jam the radio signals
2.2 Wacky hat
1. Construct a Wacky Hat that contains all the electronics.
2. Everything must be powered from a single 5-cell NiMH battery pack (supplied).
3. Have adequate battery fusing and reverse polarity protection.
4. Use a single four layer printed circuit board of dimension 85mm×64mm.
5. Use an ARM microcontroller (Atmel SAM4S8).
6. Regulate the nominal 6V battery voltage to 5V with a buck regulator IC (ADP2302ARDZ-
50).
7. Be decorated with an LED tape (supplied) controlled by the MCU.
8. Use an I2C IMU (MPU-9250) for head motion detection.
9. Use a USB interface for debugging.
10. Use a serial wire debug interface for MCU programming/debugging.
11. Have a joystick in case the IMU does not work.
12. Have a sleep button.
13. If the battery voltage drops below 5V, an LED should flash and high power draw devices should be disabled.
14. Play sound when the bumper is hit.
15. Interface to the Wacky Racer with a Nordic nRF24 SMD radio module.
16. Have four jumper selectable radio channels.
17. Be humorous.
3 Assignment schedule
The planned activities for the timetabled labs in the Embedded Systems Lab (ESL) are:
Week Assistance Assessment
T1-1
Altium tutorial 1 (schematics)
T1-2
Altium help
Schematic submission for review (Friday 5pm)
T1-3
Schematic review
T1-4
Altium tutorial 2 (PCB)
T1-5
Altium help
PCB submission 1
T1-6
Altium help
PCB submission 2
B-1
(break)
B-2
(break)
B-3
(break)
T2-1 General
T2-2 General Blinky
T2-3 General IMU/motors
T2-4 General Radio control
T2-5 General Functionality
T2-6 Competition Competition, critique
Notes:
1. There there may be a 6–10 day delay for the PCBs to be manufactured from the time of submission. You will then need to book an assembly session in the SMT lab provided you have done the SMT lab induction.
2. Do not underestimate the blinky milestone. It requires having a functional PCB with a microcontroller that turns on properly, a functional toolchain and the ability to download code into the microcontroller’s flash memory.
4 Assessment
The marks breakdown (max. 0x64) is:
PCB submission
0–0xa marks
Blinky milestone
0x5 marks
IMU/motor milestone
0x5 marks
Radio control milestone
0x5 marks
Functional assessment
0–0x14 marks
Board inspection
0–0x1e marks
Competition
0–0xa marks
Individual critique
0–0xf marks
4.1 Milestones
There are five milestones. To achieve the associated marks, they must be demonstrated to a T.A. by the end of the lab for your allotted stream. If you need an exception to this, see Ben Mitchell with a very good reason. The milestone requirements are:
see table. After week 6, there is a 10 mark penalty per week. NB, a rushed PCB design will cause you more grief, more PCB rework, and a lower mark for the inspection.
