Background
This mechanism was tested on
Testers: Ethan Cronier, Taylor McNabb
The purpose of this testing was to see how mechanism functions and NOT how well it was able to perform any of the chemical tests. The soil sensor was also not tested, and the boards used to control the mechanism were not tested either. Limit switches were disconnected and the lid to the mechanism was not tested.
To control the 2 DC motors and the shovel servo motor, the dual motor controller that was used in the initial design was used and the buttons on the board where used to control both of the motors. The servo was controlled using an arduino mega and some jank servo code. The mechanism was able to do its task as designed, whilst on life support only (requiring frequent human intervention). Many things jammed or broke or needed a nudge these problems will be discussed after the video of the mechanism working is shown.
Issues
Issues will now be listed in an unordered manner.
Belt
The belt seemed to perform well, we had no issues during testing (this round) one thing that was noticed was that the belt was twisted on one side due to interference. The belt contacts the main plate which causes the belt to twist due to the contact being at an angle. This issue was also noticed in the CAD where the belt model clipped through the plate model. This did not hinder the testing, but I found it interesting to see and thought good to mention it.
Dirt Dirt Dirt
When the dirt is picked up and released, not all of it will make it into the test tube with this design, as a result dirt will end up everywhere.
