DAVE 2 - Putting it all together

The next step was to drill the mounting holes in the decks.

This step needs to be fairly precise. If the front caster is not on the centreline of the motor, the robot will always veer off course. I marked a centreline onto the underside of the bottom deck and laid the motor onto it. When the motor was properly aligned I marked through the mounting holes. I double checked the motor alignment with the centerline and the mounting holes, then laid the caster on the centerline at the front and marked its mounting holes. There needs to be enough room for the battery holder in between the motor and caster screws, a picture further down the page shows what I mean.

 I marked four more holes for the spacers that hold the decks together. 

A 3mm drill was used to make all the mounting holes. 

The four holes for the spacers need to line up exactly on the two decks. The easy way to do this is to lay the decks together and use the lower deck as a guide to drilling the top deck. To stop the decks from shifting around, 3mm screws were pushed though the holes as they were drilled.

 Construction has really moved along in this picture. Holes for the Kitronik board were marked and drilled in the top deck.  The motor, caster and spacers were attached to the bottom deck. You can see here how the battery holder sits in between the mounting screws for the motor and caster.

A 6 mm hole was drilled in the upper deck for wires to come up through. There is a hole in the lower deck for the wires that will go down to the motors.  The switch was mounted upside down in another 6mm hole on the centreline.

This shows the switch from the underside, in the off position. This means the robot is unlikely to get switched on accidentally as it is shielded by the motor.

The next stage will be wiring all the components together...