Repaired Rear PSI, Continued Working on Dome & Sound Circuit

After picking up a winch at Harbor Freight for my future droid lift, I got busy with a simple repair to the rear PSI that I managed to damage Friday night.

A little PVC glue is all that is needed for this fix.



Good as new (however good that was...).



Next, I resumed work on the dome rotation and sound circuit.

First, I drilled some holes into a spare strip of PVC. Two holes are for mounting the stick onto the bottom of the wooden frame, the larger third hole is for mounting the switch that enables the circuit.



After drilling, I cut the stick to length for mounting in the frame.



A couple of wood screws hold it all in place, as I do a test fit.



Next, I found another spare piece of PVC left over from the door frame of the foot shell build. It is roughly the shape I need to trip the roller switch that detects when the dome is centered. I drilled a hole for a #10 screw so that I can position this piece onto the front screw on the Rockler bearing.



I used the Dremel with the drum sander attachment to reduce the amount of material that will bump into the roller switch.



I grabbed an ugly piece of 3/4" scrap plywood and cut it to size to hold the roller switch that senses when the dome is centered. I mounted the switch on the plywood base using #2 3/4" wood screws, and drilled holes for the other wood screws that will secure it to the top of the frame, just inside the Rockler bearing.



With these steps out of the way, it was time to resume soldering. I connected the wire from the circuit board to the roller switch.



I also connected the main DPDT switch that enables the circuit, and switches dome control from the receiver to the programmed PIC chip.



And then, it was time to try it all out for real! I mounted the roller switch in place.



I turned on the circuit, and the Rockler bearing immediately self-centered, just like it should!



The dome continued to periodically rotate a few degrees left and right, as the code in the PIC chip generated random numbers and read the input on the sensor pin.

Sounds aren't working yet, I am in touch with Mike on this. I think there is a grounding issue that I need to resolve. The good news is that I haven't fried my CFSound III (yet), it's still working fine.