Welcome to ME102B, "Mechatronics"

Project Proposals
DUE: Feb. 15

Make 2 Powerpoint slides proposing your group's project. Include a brief
discussion of the problem and why it's important to solve and a more
detailed discussion of how you intend to solve it. Describe major
hardware components you will need and how they will interact to form
your device. You should specify type of hardware but do not need to
know what specific model/make you will use. You should, however,
make sure what you want exists and is feasible for you to acquire and use.
One or two will present, but the entire team should be present.

Progress Presentaions : with Project Drawings
DUE: Feb. 29

Solid model your device and submit drawings of the solid model.  Use
whatever CAD software you are familiar with.  For every part, submit a
drawing detailed down to the bolt holes you will use to connect the
parts.  Show relevant dimensions.  Submit an assembly drawing that
shows the overall form of the device.  The drawings should give a
detailed picture of the inner workings of your device, and should be
sufficient as blueprints to build it.  Also submit a list of parts you
will need.  You do not need to submit drawings of common stock parts
(e.g. bolts, nuts, etc).  After submitting these drawings and
receiving feedback from the GSIs, you should begin fabrication of your
device.

Progress Presentations : with Hardwares
DUE: Apr. 9

All hardware for your device should be manufactured and assembled.
Custom parts should be machined and shown to work.  Sensors should be
mounted, motors should be connected to shafts, and pretty flashing
lights should be in place to flash prettily.  You should be able to
show you know how to control your actuators (e.g. what voltage to
apply to motors) and what output your sensors give you (e.g. if you
have a light sensor, hook it up to a multimeter and show its output
change with varying light levels).  It is ok if small adjustments need
to be made for fine-tuning, but no major work should still need to be
done.  You should spend the majority of your remaining time writing
and debugging the code to control your device.

Presentations/Open House
May. 2 / TBD

Show off your work!  For the presentation, show us your functional
device.  For the open house, put together a poster (or more) to
showcase your invention to the public.

There have a number of questions about which Arduino board should be used for ME102B. Please note that lab kits will be provided. The lab kits will contain the Duemilanove as well as the sensors and actuators needed to complete the labs.

That being said, the Arduino website features many boards such as the Duemilanove, Nano, Mini, Pro, Mini Pro, Mega, and Lilypad. The standard Arduino boards is the Duemilanove and the largest difference amongst the available options is the size of the board. A comparison can be found here. To shrink the board size down from the Duemilanove, a number of convenient features such as overcurrent protection, USB connectivity, and easy-access pins are no longer there.

The ME102B labs were written with the Arduino Duemilanove that have the Atmel 328 chip in mind. This is the most recent version of the Duemilanove, and offers expanded memory in comparison to the Duemilanoves with the Atmel 168. If you wish to buy your own boards for lab, buy the boards with the Atmel 328. Here's an online retailer that sells them for $30 (S&H inclusive).