Christopher (John) Hettinger[edit | edit source]
Email: cjhettin@mtu.edu
About Me[edit | edit source]
Hello, I am John Hettinger. I am currently in my third year at Michigan Tech pursuing my B.S. in Computer and Electrical Engineering. I grew up in the Grand Traverse region and I enjoy tinkering with anything I can get my hands on, whether it's computer building or gun restoration.
Interests[edit | edit source]
| Electronics | Computer Architecture | Programming | Building Computers | Robotics | CAD | Hunting | Fishing | Bowling | Video Games |
OSHE (Enterprise Projects)[edit | edit source]
Semester 1 Spring 2021[edit | edit source]
Growbot Base and Laser Break (Circuit Design & Wiring):[edit | edit source]
This semester I was the electrical lead on the Growbot project. One of the things that I worked on this semester was designing a circuit to detect when the bot reached the base to start charging. The goal was to prevent electric shock due to touching the charging prongs attached to the base. I was able to finish the electrical design for the base from the progress made in previous semesters. I was also able to complete most of the wiring for the base, including the power supply, switch box, and IR sensor circuit. However, the charging prongs didn't get printed this semester and neither did the mounts for the sensors. The laser break sensors were tested though, and are confirmed to work with the wire ends that the prongs will be attached to. The code for the Arduino to detect the robot is located in the Github. I also added the base electrical system description to the Growbot Electrical page. Additionally, I started the procedure and materials list for the base and will be finishing them when the wiring for the charging base is completed next semester.
- Growbot Base Pictures
Fig 1: Overall current state of the base.
Fig 2: A close up of the current sensor attachment without the mounts.
Fig 3: The wiring diagram for the Growbot bot/base interface.
Laser Break Test
The charging prongs being energized when the manual switch is enabled and the laser is broken.
Date: 2021-04-25
Growbot Bot Electrical (Circuit Design):[edit | edit source]
The other thing that I worked on this semester was modifying the electrical design of the bot to handle autonomous charging. This mainly consisted of the addition of relays to the battery terminals to detect when the bot is receiving power from the base. This causes the bot to switch to a charging circuit with the lipo charger that's mounted inside the robot. Another relay and the raspberry pi handle switching back to the run mode circuit. The circuit is fully designed and the parts are in the lab, but have not been installed or tested yet. I also updated the Growbot wiring page to reflect the most updated wiring diagrams that we have for the project.
- Growbot Bot Pictures
Fig 1: Wiring Diagram that represents all design changes made this semester.