I added another day of Bible reading and started 2 Corinthians! I also added a little bit of CSS to have enough time to post this because my sticky streak isn’t updating.
The website is coming along nicely!
Since this website is made to have something to work on daily for the Sticky Streak challenge, I will be working on this project for 3 weeks, with 20 posts by the end (hopefully!)
I have not written any CSS yet, I plan on doing that if I can’t find enough to write about for 5 minutes, but so far that hasn’t been an issue.
49m 18s logged
Integration nightmare!
The reason the first firmware didn’t work is because the D# pins didn’t map directly to GP# pins, so it was listening for phantom pins that weren’t even on the microcontroller. Then the laptop had numlock on by default with no way to turn it off because it doesn’t have a numberpad or numlock key, so it wasn’t doing what was expected.
After changing the pins correctly, the firmware wouldn’t compile and threw a bunch of errors, so I tested adding layers to the standard firmware QMK autogenerates.
Once that got compiled, I tried to flash it to the board and I couldn’t get it into bootloader mode.
I then tried a different laptop and it worked just fine.¯_(ツ)_/¯
Ship
@Abracadabra3
on
Ace of Sharks Grappler Combat Robot
Ace of Sharks 3.2 is a grappler style 1lb plastic antweight combat robot! It uses a compound grab-and-lift motion powered by a single servo to lift opponents into the air and flip them over.
Since the last ship, I have added wheel guards and strengthened the weapon assembly because both of those kept falling off in the last event. I also added more traction, or grip, to the wheels by coating them in rubber cement. A challenge was staying under weight with the additions, but using a lighter plastic for some parts got it to work.
The demo video is a highlight video from the tournament, so enjoy watching!
1h 0m 54s logged
I’m mostly done assembling, flashed my firmware to the macropad, and it does nothing. I plan on flashing the standard QMK firmware it creates and checking if that does anything to make sure that the assembly was done correctly.
@Abracadabra3
on
On Deck Screen for Combat Robot Tournaments
1h 6m 14s logged
@Abracadabra3
on
Ace of Sharks Grappler Combat Robot
37m logged
It doesn’t break anymore!
I brought Ace of Sharks to a tournament and it held up way better than last time.
- I made the nubs a separate piece so that it won’t break along layer lines anymore, and the weapon assembly never fell of!
- The wheel guards worked and I broke 0 motors.
- The rubber cement coating on the wheels worked decent with a new coat after every match. I asked other builders and liquid latex over rubber cement is common.
I tied four other robots for 5th place and had a great time talking with and learning from other builders :)
@Abracadabra3
on
Ace of Sharks Grappler Combat Robot
35m 6s logged
Wheel guards!
I added new wheel guards to Ace of Sharks (don’t mind the bright red, it’s just a test with random filament) and tested a bunch of wheel combos.
The wheel guard print worked the first time (!), and seems ready. In the Duramic PLA+ filament, Ace of Sharks should be underweight and ready for a possible tournament next week!
I tried rubber cement coated wheels to try to improve traction, and it worked really well. I also added rubber bands wrapped around the rubber cement, and that improves traction as well. That is probably what I will do in the tournament, and we will see how it works in a fight. Rubber cement does pick up dust, but a damp cloth will wipe it off and not significantly reduce stickiness. (I forgot to lapse the testing and chassis swap during the Stardance huddle, oops… )
@Abracadabra3
on
Abby-cadabra.org
5h 19m 14s logged
Well, I forgot to devlog, so here’s an update of all that I have changed.
- Added a page explaining The Four, which I will now link to from my Ace of Sharks stickers
- Added a portfolio page of all my combat robots
- Added mobile and desktop optimization
- Add navbar to all pages
- Add custom 404 page
I will continue to update these pages and I only have a draft of each of these, so hopefully I will remember to devlog more frequently :)
@Abracadabra3
on
Weight Converter
2h 3m 18s logged
Started trying to improve the user interface
Quite a few of the reviews I got on the last ship said that I should add more of a UI, so now I started trying to do that. So far, I have tried Tkinter to create a GUI (Same as in my other project Bible Clock), but it is harder than I expected. I have dropdown menus working so far and am (sometimes) able to get the unit into the code, but the number input fields are not doing what it seems like they should.
I looked at creating a website, but I don’t know JavaScript and I will need that to create a dropdown menu and do the math.
Maybe I will end up learning JavaScript instead of learning Tkinter :)
Ship
@Abracadabra3
on
Abby-cadabra.org
This is my personal website advertising my kids magic show I am preparing! This is my first time using HTML and CSS, so I am proud of accomplishing that because it was difficult. To try out my project, visit the website! Notice the favicon and the centered text boxes with rounded corners and padding.
@Abracadabra3
on
Abby-cadabra.org
1h 43m 1s logged
Ship
Bible Clock is a clock that displays a Bible verse every minute. The address of the Bible verse is the time! For example, if it was 3:16, the clock might display “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16”
This is my first time using Tkinter to create a GUI, so I am proud of accomplishing that because it was difficult.
(I would like to make this a standalone clock, if you have a suggestion of hardware to try I would love to hear it.)
Unfortunately, not all times have a corresponding Bible verse (like 1:00 or 5:59). When this happens, the code will shift the colon over one place (5:59 could turn into Isaiah 55:9). If that still does not have a Bible verse, the clock will display the time.
THIS PROJECT TAKES BIBLE VERSES OUT OF CONTEXT. Verses out of context may not make sense or even seem to say the opposite of what the Bible teaches. Read the verses in context to understand what they mean.
@Abracadabra3
on
Ace of Sharks Grappler Combat Robot
1h 55m 51s logged
Next iteration: Ace of Sharks 3.2
So far, I have:
- Strengthened the weapon assembly
- Added wheel guards
- Changed the shape of the shark arm to hopefully reach over drum spinners
I also decided I want to improve wheel traction (the grippiness of the wheel) to hopefully get more pushing power. I don’t have time to get funding, design, and iterate a cast polyurethane wheel for this tournament, so I decided I will get rubber cement and experiment with gluing rubber bands, electrical tape (sticky side out), and latex balloons to the foam wheels and see what works best.
1h 50m 32s logged
Ship
@Abracadabra3
on
Ace of Sharks Grappler Combat Robot
Ace of Sharks is a grappler combat robot in the 1 lb plastic antweight division. A grappler combat robot is designed to grab and then lift opponents into the air, like Claw Viper from the TV show and YouTube channel BattleBots.
Haven’t heard of combat robotics before? It’s basically custom RC cars with custom saws fighting each other to the death.
A challenging part of designing this version of Ace of Sharks was having an idea in my head of what I wanted it to look like and figuring out how to create that idea. This is the first time I have done that, so getting this version of Ace of Sharks designed and working is something I am proud of accomplishing. Getting to see it do lift opponents at a tournament was definitely a moment I was proud of as well.
The demo video is a highlight video from my first tournament, so enjoy watching!
@Abracadabra3
on
Ace of Sharks Grappler Combat Robot
1h 43m 23s logged
Ace of Sharks 3.1 Tournament! Shipwrights, please read the note at the end of this devlog.
I brought Ace of Sharks 3.1 to a tournament and it went pretty well! I defiantly found some bugs that need fixed (like the whole weapon assembly falling off) but I was still able to lift other robots and the concept worked great.
There was no four wheel drive for this iteration, but that will come soon as well as wheel guards and a stronger attachment point for the lifter assembly.
I am ready to ship, with the tournament highlight video as the demo video for Ace of Sharks.
Stay tuned to Ace of Sharks as I will continue to improve Ace of Sharks 3.2 to prepare for another tournament before Stardance is over!
Edit for shipwrights because I can’t edit the ship post: I hope bonuses will retroactively apply as well as payout increases. I have a logo I make into stickers to give out a tournaments (a new one for v3 and I have three other Ace of Sharks logos I wish I could show you but I can’t add more pictures to a devlog), I edited a highlight video myself (that’s the demo video) and I designed the poster myself. I worked really hard on making this project do well in voting, so I am disappointed at the fixed 5 stardust an hour payout rate. The fixed payout makes sense with the way Stardance is formatted; it’s just disappointing because of how hard I worked on this project, trying to get 15-20 stardust an hour.
53m 8s logged
Today I made Bible Clock prettier by adding formatting to the window
I learned more commands in tkinter for adding background color, text padding (though I can’t get the text centered vertically) and window size.
I also added some more randomness to the verses with the books with a certain match being only if the random book does not have one.
If anyone knows how to center the text vertically, I would appreciate a suggestion.
1h 7m 22s logged
The clock changes at the correct time now!
Before, the clock started whenever you started the program and changed time one minute (plus web scraping time) later. Now, the clock will change within 2 seconds of the real clock (no web scraping time included)!
This was harder than I expected because time.sleep will freeze the GUI.
There is a weird bug where some of the time, it just pops up a blank screen (no text at all). But that only happens some of the time, so I’m not sure what is causing that. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Loading more…