Week of 2/10

This week I made a lot of progress in the building of the cleaner. I first started the week by testing my PCB which I had recently cut out the week previous. However after noticing many errors while testing, it prompted me to go back into the schematic and make sure I was not missing any connections. Low and behold, I found that I had forgotten to connect my motor driver to ground. After making this discovery I then went back to the PCB mill with my updated design. After cutting it out, I went straight on to soldering it and after testing, it worked perfectly the way I had designed it.

After this I then went on to assembling the project. This had to start by completely detaching all pieces in order to properly mount the PCB into place, and this turned out to be quite a struggle. Due to the very small size of the containment chamber that hold the circuit board, it made in near impossible to fit my into into the tight space, let alone perfectly fit each screw into place. Along with it being almost impossible to see into the the chamber, I realized I needed to change my strategy. I then moved by the solder station where there were many lights that I could allow me to see clearly into the chamber. Along with this I also brought needle nose pliers to do the work of placing the screws in correctly. Even with this extra assistance it proved to be quite challenging, but I was eventually have to fully attach the PCB into place.

Potentiometer attached to handle

After this was complete I then next moved to attaching the wires for the various components into place, this involved the same methods I spoke about above. After attaching some of the wires I noticed an issue. While trying to attach the potentiometer wires, the metal plating had stripped off of the bottom of the PCB. This then forced me to completely reopen the cleaner and carefully attempt to re-solder the copper plating back onto the rest of the PCB. However, in the end I was successful and after testing again, I was certain it was working once again. Finally, I re attached everything and fully assembled my project. I was very happy to see the entire project in front of me and working properly. However I have a final few touches to make, one of them I ordering my 11.1v battery as well as properly mounting my handle with nuts I right now, I have it attached only from the potentiometer.