I Am Low Level Engineer. As Such I Am NEVER Let ANYWHERE Near A Costumer Or ANY Decision That Involves

I am low level engineer. As such I am NEVER let ANYWHERE near a costumer or ANY decision that involves "How do you feel people should use computers?". I am a low level engineer. When you ask us such questions, answers like "Working in the shell is most of the time nicer than a GUI" or "No I DO think forcing the consumer to insert the settings for their automatic curtains in a hex code they generate based on several tables in the manual is a reasonable way for this system to work". So AS a low level engineer, I can only say... yep, put it up to 12. I once used one to melt tin and used it to solder with, and I am sure many users will face simillar needs of their toasters since that is completly reasonable behavior.

It works!*

So I (FINALLY) put the final touches on the software for my robot PROTO! (Listen, I am a software person, not a coming-up-with-names person)

Basically, it is a ESP32 running him. He takes HTTP messages. Either GET odometry, or PUT twist. Both just being a string containing comma separated numbers

Odometry is the robots best guess based on internal sensors where it is (Since PROTO uses stepper motors, which rotates in tiny tiny steps... it is basically counting the steps each motor takes)

Twist is speed, both in x,y and z directions, and speed in angular directions (pitch, roll and yaw). This is used to tell the robot how to move

Now, since PROTO is a robot on two wheels, with a third free-running ball ahead of him, he cannot slide to the side, or go straight up in the air. You can TRY telling him to do that, but he will not understand what you mean. Same with angular movement. PROTO can turn left or right, but he have no clue what you mean if you tell him to bend forward, or roll over.

The software is layered (Which I use a BDD diagram to plan. I love diagrams!)

Basically PROTO gets a twist command and hands that over to the Differential_Movement_Model layer.

The Differential_Movement_Model layer translate that to linear momentum (how much to move forward and backwards) and angular momentum (how much to turn left or right). combines them, and orders each wheel to move so and so fast via the Stepper_Motors layer.

The Stepper_Motors turns the wanted speed, into how many steps each stepper motor will have to do per second, and makes sure that the wanted speed can be achieved by the motors. It also makes sure that the wheels turn the right way, no matter how they are mounted (In PROTO's case, if both wheels turn clockwise, the right wheel is going forward, and the left backwards.). It then sends this steps per second request down to the Peripheral_Hub layer.

The Peripheral_Hub layer is just a hub... as the name implies, it calls the needed driver functions to turn off/on pins, have timers count steps and run a PWM (Pulse-width modulation. It sends pulses of a particular size at a specific frequency) signal to the driver boards.

Layering it, also means it is a lot easer to test a layer. Basically, if I want to test, I change 1 variable in the build files and a mock layer is build underneath whatever layer I want to test.

So if I want to test the Stepper_Motors layer, I have a mock Peripheral_Hub layer, so if there are errors in the Peripheral_Hub layer, these do not show up when I am testing the stepper motor layer.

The HTTP server part is basically a standard ESP32 example server, where I have removed all the HTTP call handlers, and made my own 2 instead. Done done.

So since the software works... of course I am immediately having hardware problems. The stepper motors are not NEARLY as strong as they need to be... have to figure something out... maybe they are not getting the power they need... or I need smaller wheels... or I will have to buy a gearbox to make them slower but stronger... in which case I should proberbly also fix the freaking cannot-change-the-micro-stepping problem with the driver boards, since otherwise PROTO will go from a max speed of 0.3 meters per second, to most likely 0.06 meters per second which... is... a bit slow...

But software works! And PROTO can happily move his wheels and pretend he is driving somewhere when on his maintenance stand (Yes. it LOOKS like 2 empty cardboard boxes, but I am telling you it is a maintenance stand... since it sounds a lot better :p )

I have gone over everything really quickly in this post... if someone wants me to cover a part of PROTO, just comment which one, and I will most likely do it (I have lost all sense of which parts of this project is interesting to people who are not doing the project)

Vocalization of your thoughts can help you solve problems. In the same way that writing them up or making a diagram of the problem can help you fix it. Try tricks people recomend, and if they work for you. Great! Use them! Here is my duck by the way :3

He is so sassy!

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Yeeeeeeeeah... Honestly, celebrate your victories and accomplishments. Even if it feels silly or self indulgent. It is important! Simply repeating that you are doing good will make you really FEEL like you are doing good. Which is just fantastic for your mental health and staying motivated.

A girl who I took her degree at the same time as me, had taken a bachelor in english before becoming an engineer.

And everyone around her was ASTONISHED that a engineer would be able to write dokumentation that are readable to HUMANS. She have NEVER been unemployed. She was hired FAST.

It is HARD to learn skills that are 100% useless to whatever you end up doing. Do things you like. Study whatever you like. Have whatever hobbies. If they make you a better you, that will make you better at WHATEVER job you will end up doing.

And people WILL hire you for more. Because you WANTING to learn these skills, will naturally do with passion and enthusiasm. And want to do it a lot.

That is what people usually call "Talent".

You have it too! You ARE talented. And I beg of you, allow yourself to delve deep into these passions so you can become the best you, you can be.

The world have need of good people doing their best. Let us make sure we cultivate many such people.

Oh this is GREAT. I am a big fan of diagrams to get a grasp of what is happening with code (Learning to make UML diagrams was the best supporting skill for learning and communicating code for me) :D People learning git for the first time often have trouble with what the local and remote repository is, what the difference is and which is which. Also, first and most important git command everyone should learn: git status It tells you what git thinks is where. It is THE command for starting to use, and learn, git.

Git cheat sheet guys 😉

Git is a powerful version control system widely used in software development to manage source code and track changes. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer, having a handy cheat sheet can be incredibly useful to quickly reference common Git commands and workflows. Here's a comprehensive Git cheat sheet to help you navigate through various Git operations:

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