# Part 1 Construction and Experimental Modification

## Exercise I - Kit Construction

This first exercise in the Construction and Modification topic focuses on building the kit for the autonomous vehicle that will accompany the entire course module. The constructed car forms the fundament on which the exercises are built and the acquired knowledge is gradually applied. Participants will familiarize themselves with the car already during the set-up and learn about its parts, features and sensors to implement the course objective: an autonomous self-driving car.

## Exercise Conception

| Exercise No. | 6 |
| -------- | -------- |
| Exercise Name | Construction and Experimental Modification Part 1 of 3 |
|Time | 5h |
|Prerequisites|Independent|
|Objectives|Construction of the Car Kit, Introduction to Sensors and Actuators|
|Take-Away Skills| Introduction to autonomous driving, Construction Skills|

## Exercise Implementation

In this exercise, the smart car kit for the Raspberry Pi from Freenove will be constructed. The participants follow the assembly instructions of the car kit and familiarize themselves with the components and features of the vehicle that will be part of the entire course.

### Exercise Preparation

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Your group got a transparent plastic box with all the parts as listed above. Please label your box with your group name and the names of the participants in your group.

Now have a look at the parts list. Make sure your box includes all the listed parts. In case of missing parts please inform the advisor. Please use the form you are given by the advisor to make sure your kit is complete.

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Once you have ensured that all parts are included, please start the assembly of your Freenove Car Kit.

1. Motor, Wheel and Servo arm


Take all parts you need out of the box and start to place the rocker arm on the smart car board in accordance with its silkscreen printing. Use zwo M2.5x8 screws to install it to smart car board.

There are two servo packages in your box. Each package contains one servo, three rocker arms, one M2x4 screws and two M2.5x8 screws as shown below:


Furthermore you will find 4 bracket packages to fix motors. Each of them contains an aluminium bracket, two M3x30 screws, two M3x8 screws and two M3 nuts as shown below:


Please intstall the motor bracket with M3x8 screw now. You can also attach this bracket to motor first if you wish.


In the next step please install the motor to bracket with a M3x30 screw and M3 Nut.

Repeat this step 3 times more for the 3 motor sets. Then connect motor wires to motor ports. If the wires seem too long feel free to tie a knot.

Now please take the 4 wheels out of the box and install them to the motor. Be careful: the mounting hole is not a round hole.

Congratulation! The first step is made and all motors and wheels are installed successfully.

2. Infrared line tracking module

The second step consists of the installation of the infrared line tracking module.

First please install two M3x30 standoff on smart car board with M3x6 screws. Then install line tracking module on standoff with M3x6 screws.

Now please connect the line tracking module to the smart car board with XH - 2.54-5 Pin cable.

3. Installation of the Raspberry Pi
First please install four M.2.5x8+6 standoffs to the nuts on the smart car board. And then place the Raspberry Pi from your box on the standoff in accordance with its silkscreen printing. Use four M.5x4 srews to install it.

4. Connection of Raspberry Pi to the board.

In the next step please install the connection board as shown in the figure above. The long female header connector should be connected to the smart car board and the short one should bi connected to Raspberry Pi. For a better understanding of this step please see the following pictures:



5. Pan Tilt
Now please install the two 18650 batteries. Therefore please push the battery to + ends of battery holder to make the connection good enough.

Now please take the two servos from your box and connect them to Port Servo= and Port Servo1 on the smart car board. Please make sure to remember the numbers of the servos. You will need them later.

Next you need to install Pan-Tilt because you need to run programs for the installation of the servos to ensure that they rotate to the correct angle.

Now the servos are connected please enter the following command in the terminal:

If the terminal displays the directory as below you can directly execute the servo.py command.


6. Ultrasonic sensor and camera frist

In the next step please build the camera frist and ultrasonic sensor.


7. Installation of the Pan Tilt on the smart car board

In the next step please install the Pan Tilt on smart car board as seen here:


Please be careful and pay attention to servo wiring. Please note: the wiring about the ultrasonic and camera module will be introduced later.

8. Wiring

In this step please connect the camera.

The blue side of the cable should be toward to Servo. Please connect one end of cable to the camera and note the front and back of the cable.


Please note: the blue side of the cable should be toward to RPi USB port. Please connect another end of the cable to the Raspberry Pi and be aware of the front and the back of the cable.

In the next step please connect the ultrasonic module to the smart car board. Therefore please use the jumper wires F/F to connect the module with the pins on the board as seen below:


9. Module Test

In this step please test the module. Therefore the car must be equipped with batteries, and both S1 power switch and S2 motor switch need to be pressed. Then the 5V, 3.3V battery power indicators will be turned on.


Please be careful: The motor will work during the test. That means that the wheels will spin! Make sure your car is on an elevated position and the wheels can rotate freely or remove them for this step to avoid that your car falls down and is damaged.

Congratulation, you finished the first exercise.

Please make sure to collect all the parts you did not need and your build-up car in your group-box and make sure you labeled it with your group name. So next lecture you are ready to start. Please remove the batteries otherwise they will discharge until next lecture.