Driver Regulation System (Part 3)

Recap

So last when I left off, I had figured out all the software needed to put the system together and had tested each component to identify how they will be driven. So now its time to actually put everything together!!

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Formalizing

So I went out to go buy some solder and perfboards. Now before I show you this soldering job, I know it is probably gonna be the worst thing you have ever seen. So let me preface this by saying, I bought the wrong type of solder for the job here. I ended up with solder that happened to be way too thick for electronics ( I ended up buying 1.5mm solder from home depot).

Anyways here we go: Figure 1: Horrible Soldering Backside Figure 2: Horrible Soldering Frontside

Now I know it looks terrible but when I tested it with the hardware eveything worked and nothing was shorted!! Figure 3: Testing RF deadman switch running of actuator power The power and ground between all the inputs were aligned correctly and the signals were all connected!! Furthermore the code I made based on yesterday’s findings was working!! I truely was winning. To avoid ruining my luck, I also just covered the back with electrical tape. Figure 4: electrical tape makes me the electrician I ain’t

Slight problem

While things were going great with the system, There was a significant problem I did over look a bit. The serial chip on the board requires power to be present from the usb cable for it to activate and actually start up the serial connection. The issue here is that the board is already getting power from the ESC since that is what distributes the actuator power. This meant that I could not have power being fed through the usb cable since that would be incompatible with the power I am getting form the ESC.

So my fix for this was to completely bypass the serial chip and the usb port on the ESP-32 and just use the pins to connect to the processors. This resulted in even more cursed soldering that I then later covered with electrical tape, but i did get it to work. Figure 5: Playing a dangerious game

Lessons Learned?

Going forward, I learned that I should probably make sure I read the datasheets better so I know all the gotchas at the start. Also I need to be better about buying the right supplies. But lets not forget, this soldering job did work so yeah.

Next Step

Now that the electronics is complete and working with the car, its time to build the hardware enclosure for this and mount it onto the car!!