My Senior Project

[Schlyne]

:roll:

Okay, I need some suport or something Oye. Okay, I'm a senior electrical engineering student, and my senior design project requires a lot of soldering work (i mean really precise tiny holes and componets). So here I am sodering along and the resistor I'm worknig on falls out. :!:

This leaves me with solder in both tiny tiny holes and no resistor. AFter 30 mins or so with soldering braid later, I get the solder and broken resistor end out of one side, leaving me a dab of solder smack in the middle of the other. After about 20 more minutes of fighting with it, I get it out, but I may have slightly destroyed a trace in the porcess. (wire component connection)

I drop the resistor, losee it and replace it with some of my personal stock. A few minutes later, I slightly crack a capacitor trying to make sure it's flat tot the pcb board (as per instructions). It looks ok...so I put it in and make a note of it.

At this point my back insists that it shouldn't be leaning over this much.

I give up, take pictures for documentation purposes, and put the kit away so the cat doesn't spread it all over the place.

Anyway (if you get to this point) send me good luck or wish me well or something. I haven't even put in the mods yet, I just want the kit working first.

I wish I'd gotten into herps earlier, I could have built a thermostat or an electronic rack system..it would have been easier than putting together a robot and modifiying the stupid thing. Heck, if I'd gotten into home brewing earlier I would have designed a carboy cart lift or something.

[Jase]

well if its any help good luck
i hope everything works out for the best with your project

[the_mechanic]

I don't really understand what you're doing, but I hope you succeed! Good luck!

[Schlyne]

Well, let's just say that it's supposed to look something like this when it's done.

It shows up as seperate pieces and then I'm supposed to modify this thing.

[mlededee]

good luck with that. what is it going to do when you are finished building it?

[Schlyne]

If it works, it's supposed to be solar powered, search for the brightest spot in the room and walk toward it. It will turn and walk around by itself.

What I said I would do after it does that, is modify it so that it doesn't walk off the edge of a table, and/or modify it so that if it walks up an incline, it won't walk up an incline that is too steep for it to walk up without falling over.

However, I can't start trying to build the mods into it if I can't get the kit working.

[mlededee]

when i was younger my dad helped me build a little robot--basically a remote control car modified with a small board. it had two modes--either to follow a light source like a flashlight or to just drive around until it sensed something solid and then turn away from it and keep going. it was a fun project. not near as complicated as what you are doing though. looks like an awful lot of soldering there.

[Schlyne]

It is. I'm about a month behind on my senior project. Other classes got in the way, and I was sick for a while.

For a while I wanted to make sure I knew how the mods were going to go in before I put the kit together. I didn't want to put things on and then take them off becuase of the modifications.

[Ironhead]

Sending good luck vibes your way.

[Blink]

Good luck, keep us updated!