Assembly Part 5

In this part, you will make all the electrical connections in the robot. This step uses parts from Bag Three of your kit. There are no tools needed for this step.

Step 1

First, locate the nine 8" wires with crimps on each end. There are three black, three yellow, and three red wires. Each wire has two types of crimps, one on each end. Also locate the three small white connector housings. These connector housings are for the infrared rangers you installed in the frame earlier. Carefully note the diagrams below and plug together the connectors, three wires for each connector.

Make sure your crimp looks like this.

Plug the wires in with these colors.

Step 2

Now, plug these three white housings with the wires attached from the previous step into the GP2D12 detectors mounted in the frame. Take great care when pluging these in as the printed circuit boards on the ranging detectors are extremely fragile. Also, make sure you are plugging the connector in the right orientation. The connector is keyed and can only be plugged in one way.

Between the servo wires and the detector wires, your robot will look a bit like a teenager in the middle of an orthodontist appointment with wires hanging out in all directions. The next step brings these wires all to the controller.

Plugging the detectors into the controller needs to be done in a particular order for the programs to operate properly when the robot is complete.

Bottom view of robot showing servo and ranger numbering.

Step 3

Using the above diagram as a guide, start with ranger number one. Take the black and red wires coming from this ranger and plug them into one of the five black Molex connectors in Bag Three of your kit. These two wires provide power to the ranger. Plug this completed connector housing into the Pontech board in position S8 with the black wire nearest the outer edge of the board.

Detail showing how to plug the Molex crimp into the housing.

Step 4

Repeat the above process with the black and red wires from rangers two and three, plugging them into positions S7 and S6 on the Pontech board (respectively).

Detail of the Pontech connections.

Step 5

Now, the yellow remaining wire and plug it into another black Molex connector housing. Take the yellow wire from ranger two and plug it into the other side of this same connector housing. Plug this completed housing into the Pontech board with the wire from ranger one towards the outside of the board as shown in the diagram below.

Step 6

Plug the remaining yellow wire from ranger three in to the remaining black Molex housing and plug this into the board as shown below (this connector housing only carries one wire).

Step 7

Follow with the servos. Take servo one and plug it into position S1 on the Pontech board. The wire nearest the edge of the board should be the darkest of the servo's wires (typically brown or black).

After these steps, the only electrical connection is the power supply from the battery pack. There should be no remaining wires left hanging out of the robot at this point and you should have used all five black connector housings.

Step 8

The power switch is next. Remove the two hex-nuts from the switch as well as the lock washer and the flat washer. Start with a hex nut spun down about 2/3 of the threads on the switch. Follow with the flat washer with the little tab facing towards the switch. Next, put the switch through the deck so the toggle is on top of the robot. Follow with the lock-washer and finally the other hex nut. Tighen this up once it is all in place.

Switch hardware detail with switch inserted from deck bottom.

Step 9

Finally, mount the battery pack into the robot. There is a piece of double-sided adhesive tape on the back of the battery pack. Before you remove the backing, try positioning the battery in the robot. It should fit with a small amount of extra room in the triangle formed by servos two and three and the Pontech board. Make sure the wires route under the servos and that the red connector can reach the Pontech's red power receptical. Now remove the adhesive backing and carefully stick the battery pack down against the bottom of the lid. Press firmly with your hands both on the top of the deck and inside the battery pack. Once the pack is in place, plug the red connector into the Pontech board. There is only one way it will fit ensuring the proper power polarity.

Now all the electrical connections are in place. You only have a couple of final steps to complete your robot!

Continue on to the next building step .

Review the previous building step .

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