Fixing messy wiring (before / after)
Before:
I'm currently working on about six different parts of the robot. There are wires everywhere as I test different things. Many times I find myself revising one component even as I design completely new ones. I;m still going to try to have the robot ready to start being mobile by this June (2012). Hopefully it will be smooth sailing from here. Mostly I just have to get everything hooked up in a way that the robot doesn't need some umbilical connected to an external power supply. I have found that powering the robot is not the difficult part; it is providing the correct amount of voltage to all of the smaller components that require less than a few volts and very few amps in order to function. If I were to connect them directly to the 12 volt car battery they would overload due to the extreme amperage. My savior has been the small car chargers that can convert 12V 75A to about 5V 4A which is perfect for powering small electronic devices like the Arduino. In about a week I will post again and show the wires all neatened up.
After: