Apollo 15 Lunar Rover Model
Hardware- 8 Devlogs
- 11 Total hours
Bluetooth-controlled lunar rover model from the Apollo 15 mission
@fish-in-a-puddle
on
Apollo 15 Lunar Rover Model
41m 12s logged
Today I finally got back to work on the 3d model and made a tester to print and make sure everything fits. Tomorrow I’ll actually print it (my 3D printer isn’t big enough for the whole thing to fit on the plate, so I’ll cut the model in half and put it together post printing). I only got a couple hours of sleep last night so this devlog is brought to you by boygenius which I listened to so I wouldn’t fall asleep. thank you boygenius save me boygenius PLEASE BOYGENIUS PLEASE SAVE ME
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Ship #1
@fish-in-a-puddle
on
Apollo 15 Lunar Rover Model
The Apollo 15 Lunar Rover Model V0 is a prototype for an Arduino-powered, Bluetooth-controlled model of the Lunar Roving Vehicle used for the Apollo 15 mission. A few months ago, I watched the NASA livestream where they announced the contracts for various lunar missions. After watching an hour of cool new design presentations, I was inspired to make a project that pays homage to the Apollo missions. Enter the Apollo 15 Lunar Rover Model! It can be controlled manually with Bluetooth controls or set to drive itself with the help of two ultrasonic sensors and two IR sensors. There are also two LED “headlights” that can be controlled manually or turn on and off automatically based on the light level (detected by a photoresistor). The servo motor, which will eventually have a decorative receiver dish attached to it, turns from side to side randomly. Before I could make it look cool, though, I had to test all the different parts and make sure they could a) fit in the chassis size I wanted to use and b) actually work the way I expected. This project has been a great learning experience so far - I’ve improved my coding skills a lot and I’m going to learn a lot about 3D modeling in the next couple weeks as I create the chassis for the V1. The hardest part of making this project has been working with the cardboard frame. Cardboard is great for prototypes because it’s super cheap and easy to cut and glue, but it tends to sag after a week. Plus, it’s not pretty and really takes away from the whole “model” thing. But using the cardboard did work well for the V0 and I’m proud of how it’s turned out.
@fish-in-a-puddle
on
Apollo 15 Lunar Rover Model
1h 27m 1s logged
So, I’m a couple days late but I’m about to ship! Finished adding images and videos, added instructions for using a Bluetooth app (the custom one did not work out because mit app inventor is not super good at finding Bluetooth devices) and updated my bill of materials.
@fish-in-a-puddle
on
Apollo 15 Lunar Rover Model
1h 57m 59s logged
Wrote the README and organized some of my files. Still need to take and upload images/demo video and test the control app but otherwise it is done. If all goes well, I will ship the project tomorrow!
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@fish-in-a-puddle
on
Apollo 15 Lunar Rover Model
53m 35s logged
Unfortunately, my Lapse is not recognizing that I have a Hackatime project to sync with so imagine I have about two more hours of logged time here :( but ANYWAYS the code is DONE! The app just needs to be TESTED! I am WRITING the DOCS and once I’m done of that, the Apollo 15 Lunar Rover Model v0 will be SHIPPED! Are you happy? I’m happy. But seriously, I just need to make a wiring schematic, a tutorial for building the cardboard frame, a demo video and write the README.
@fish-in-a-puddle
on
Apollo 15 Lunar Rover Model
29m 21s logged
I LOST MY TIMELAPSE TO THE CRUELTY OF HACKATIME ;-; so it says half an hour but it was actually more like an hour and forty-five minutes that it took to get the bluetooth and auto drive to work in one sketch, finish the first draft of the app and start writing the bill of materials. Integrating the auto drive into the bluetooth sketch was actually way easier than expected and working the commands into the app wasn’t too tricky either. The bill of materials, though, may actually kill me. Stay tuned to find out if I survive long enough to ship this guy.
@fish-in-a-puddle
on
Apollo 15 Lunar Rover Model
2h 15m 46s logged
The rover model can now be controlled using bluetooth! After a couple hours of troubleshooting, I was able to use an arduino bluetooth serial app I downloaded from the app store (the custom app isn’t ready) to send commands to the rover. The next step is to make it possible to turn the self-driving mode on and off through bluetooth.
@fish-in-a-puddle
on
Apollo 15 Lunar Rover Model
1h 28m 34s logged
Over the past few days, I have tested several different configurations of sensors to give the rover the ability to navigate on its own. The most effective setup ended up being two ultrasonic sensors on the front of the rover and an IR sensor on each side. I’ve tested it several times and these sensors seem to be picking up about 80-90% of the objects in the robot’s path, which I am satisfied with for now. The next step is to add bluetooth controls to the rover so it can be driven using an app. I will start by using a bluetooth serial app that I already have, but I will eventually build a custom app as well.
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@fish-in-a-puddle
on
Apollo 15 Lunar Rover Model
1h 55m 47s logged
Finally, the Lunar Rover model can be built! After waiting a while for the motors to arrive, I built a cardboard frame as a prototype and 3d printed some wheels to get the rover rolling. So far it only runs a test sketch to go forwards, backwards and turn a bit (which really freaked out my dog), but next I’m going to have it navigate on its own using an ultrasonic sensor. Then I’ll add some of the extra features, like Bluetooth control, headlights that turn on when it’s dark and a servo to make the receiver dish sweep from side to side. I do realize that at the moment this guy looks absolutely nothing like the actual lunar rover, but I will be modeling a 3d printed chassis and painting it to look like the real thing. Plus, I’m going to add two little astronauts in the seats, because this was not an autonmous vehicle. It was similar to a space golf cart and by god I will do it justice.
