3-19-2012

Today in class we learned about inferred sensors and their uses.  They are used to detect distances and give feedback.  We were each given an inferred sensor to connect to our robot.  We wired them onto our robots and then wrote a simple program that would have the sensor detect a distance and then display it in a window in the Picaxe program while the robot was still plugged in.  But the numbers it would display were not in inches or centimeters, so we had to figure out a formula that would give us the correct number, which I didn't finish before the end of class.  But after a while we moved on to the line follower sensors that were in our kits and talked about how we were going to install them in our robots.  You can see in the pictures below the steps I took in preparing the senors. First I trimmed the leads of the sensors so they were a little easier to work with.  Then I soldered pieces of wire onto the end of each lead.  After that I put heat shrink over each of the solder joints to prevent them from contacting each other and to strengthen the joint.  Next I put pin crimps one the other end of the wires so they can be easily plugged into the board.  Last, I put pairs of the crimped end into sleeves to keep them organized and make plugging them in easier.

Inferred sensor

Line Follower sensors

Sensor with trimmed leads and wired soldered on

All three sensors with wires soldered on

Heat shrink put over the solder joints

Crimps put on to other end of wires

All the crimps put on

Crimped end put into sleeves

Finished sensors