Helium Balloon Car: Electronics

We are using Arduino to control two dc motors with an IR remote. Currently, both motors can only turn in one direction, but they can be controlled separately. Future developments are making motors reversible and adding gear ratios to produce more torque.

 

 

#include // IR libarary

#define Button_1 0xFF30CF

#define Button_2 0xFF18E7 // remote buttons in hex

int receiver = 13;// sets reciver to digital pin 13

IRrecv irrecv(receiver); // creates an instance of reciver

decode_results results;

void setup() { pinMode(10, OUTPUT); //motor1

output pinMode(9, OUTPUT); //motor2

output Serial.begin(9600);

irrecv.enableIRIn(); // start the reciver

}

void loop() { if(irrecv.decode(&results)) { // if there is an ir signal

Serial.println(results.value, HEX ); //print value to serial monitor

irrecv.resume();

switch(results.value){

case Button_1: //forward

digitalWrite(10, HIGH);// if button 1 turn on motor1

digitalWrite(9, HIGH); //motor 2

while(true) { delay(100);

if(irrecv.decode(&results)) { // if there is an ir signal

Serial.println(results.value, HEX ); //print value to serial monitor

irrecv.resume();

Serial.println("This sohuld say button2:");

Serial.println(results.value, HEX);

}

if (results.value == Button_2)

break;

}

case Button_2: //stop

digitalWrite(10, LOW); // if button 2 turn off motor

digitalWrite(9, LOW);

}

return;

}

delay(100);

}

 

7/22/22

 

We needed to create centripetal motion so that we could measure a constant centripetal acceleration. We explored multiple methods of creating this effect, including a motor and a hand crank before we eventually settled on a device that uses small propellers to push a rotating platform. This contraption utilized 2 dc hobby motors, which are readily available, 1 Arduino Uno r3, 1 L298n stepper driver, and 2 x 3.7 Volt Lithium Ion batteries. Please see the following schematic (I did not make this, it is from https://forum.arduino.cc/. 

This setup is easily reproducible so that it can be used for academic purposes. I programmed it to run both motors for 30 seconds. Afterward, the user can re-run the motors by pushing the reset button on the Arduino. Code can be found on GitHub. 

Here is how the contraption was assembled:

 

We made a water proof container with a hook at the bottom, which we could attach a string to. We filled this container with water and put a boyant object in, tied to a string.

 

The setup looked like this:

 

A short demonstration of the experiment can be found here: https://youtu.be/IdaRIiYbtYU

For information about how we are tracking the object look here. 

For information about the physics at play look here.