Development and Progression

The final few days of development have seen a big rise in the level of activity surrounding the buggy. The group have worked hard to develop a well built, professional product that meets all the aims; with numerous problems arising. These problems have seriously hindered progress but have resulted in a better quality product being created.
The problems were:
1. Motor Power. The motors do not have the torque to turn the chassis (which still appears to be relatively light) upon command.
2. Motor driver board problems. Fault diagnosis suggested that the motor driver board was faulty (a blown chip was suspected), but after creating a new resistor board the fault was found to be in the input voltage to the system (the batteries!).
3. LDR sensitivity. As the suspected fault with the motor driver board briefly stopped development of the moving parts, the group focused their attention onto developing the sensing elements. The LDR's and LED's were mounted onto the front of the buggy at a sensible height to allow adjustment; once testing commenced. Upon reflection it was realised taht the variable conditions experienced in the actual testing laboratory (Room 160 in Aston university) were vastly different to a dimly lit basement.
4. Available products/parts. The supplier used to precure all the components and parts had run out of the LED's that were used to provide a more stable light source for the LDR's to detect. This resulted in a change of LED - a solution that quickly enabled testing to get back on track.