Week 4: New DB21Js arrive, assembling DB21M, getting Ubuntu laptops and bridging the Wifi gap

06/26/2024

It’s here!!!! We had our weekly departmental meeting to share our progress and update the group. I loved everyone’s presentation today as it reflected on the talk Professor Kyle Broaders gave about giving good oral presentations with the slides. I particularly loved a colleague’s presentation as she showed us a a game she had been working on which uses hand gestures to pop balloons.

After the meeting, we got some ubuntu laptops to work with which will hopefully solve our internet connection issues. We also got DB21Ms duckiebots to assemble! I was so excited to jump into the hardware component of the duckiebot and get right into constructing it. I reviewed and followed the steps outlined in the DuckieTown document to piece the components together. It was very exciting to have nuts and screws scattered around but also making sure I did not lose any since every component was crucial for the finished assembly of the duckiebot.

06/27/2024

Done assembling my bot, although I think I may have been a bit too hard on the HUT put it to charge and yet to give it a name. I loved the process of bringing it into one piece. Now with new duckiebots to work with, a new ubuntu computer and no heatwave, the task ahead seemed better and clearer. So far we have 3 assembled bots. We started the whole process once more with the software setup and docker.

06/28/2024

Today, we just decided to work on one bot and go through the SD card flashing process once more to see if there was progress made with DB21M. We decided to use leafduck (Yu Wati’s bot) which proved to be successful because now the dashboard was working, the lights were on, the power button was orange ,the wifi dongle was blinking and it moved. IT MOVED! Such an exciting moment which was truly worth it even though just one wheel was moving.

07/01/2024

After a good weekend, we were back in the lab to work on the network issues with leafduck. We attempted once more to use the ethernet but we did not connect it well. We were supposed to have two ethernet cables(both connected to the wall and one for the duckiebot and the other for the laptop) but we instead connected it from the duckiebot to the laptop straight away which proved to not work because “dts fleet discover” was still not working. The HUTs on the duckiebots are so delicate that we mistakenly ended up breaking the charging port and lights port which somehow rendered leafduck immobile, irresponsive and with different colors for the light – instead of blue, it was red and pink. Yu Wati switched out leafduck’s HUT with rainduck’s and the lights worked but the wifi dongle was still not blinking. I think it may be due to the fact that rainduck’s HUT also has some problems.

07/02/2024

Today, we went to fimbel to seek some help concerning the networking issues. Luke helped us and taught some pretty valuable commands in the terminal which led to us running “dts fleet discover” once more which the ethernet cables and guess what – the status of the duckiebot was showing. We got the right result from the documentation that was given and we completed the booting duckiebot step. Super excited about that. We spoke about getting our own internal WiFi for the lab to make things a bit easier for us since we have had this network issue for a while and the “dts fleet discover” did not show the school’s WiFi-LyonNet-Encrypt which we instructed the duckiebot to connect to when setting up the SD card for burning even though the dongle was blinking. I watched as Yu Wati set up her duckiebot dashboard which went smoothly until a terminal error occurred with the update of the duckiebot.

07/03/2024

Ellen’s duckiebot “ellenduck” is the only bot with its original HUT and has successfully booted the duckiebot using the ethernet cable. The dashboard has been set up but it does not show on the screen of the duckiebot but rather on the computer which I assume is fine because everything looks okay!

On the dashboard, a component section was available which leafduck did not have so that was interesting. In order to run the components and test them, an update was in order. Duckietown shell utility was to be updated There were 3 parts to be:

1. pip3 install --user --upgrade --no-cache-dirduckietown-shell
2. dts update
3. dts desktop update

Pip3 install worked, dts update worked but alas once again we have run into the issue of the dts desktop not working which was the same situation leafduck was in.

07/08/2024

Today, we have our weekly meeting with Diane after lunch. I came in bright and early to see if I could fix the cord that broke off from the HUT but there has been no progress. I am considering assembling a new DB21J to work with since I am not too keen on swapping the HUT of the DB21M and the DB21J. A fresh start should do the trick. The HUTs of the DB21Ms are so weak as compared to the DB21Js. I am thinking of asking Diane to order some new HUTs for my bot while I assemble the DB21J.

7/09/2024

Today, we had our check in with Diane and I decided was presented with two options – build a new DB21J bot or just swap the HUTs of my DB21M with a DB21J. I decided to just swap the HUTs and work with that. I have successfully flashed my SD card and I decided to move on to the booting process of my duckiebot “skyduck”. I have tried booting it but it does not work. Initially, I had a problem with the battery because there was supposed to be a flashing light after 30 minutes of charge, but I did not get the light and thought nothing of it. Now, I see the problem may stem from the battery because it cannot be the HUT since it’s a new one. My assumption is because I did not get the light on the battery earlier, it did not charge and hence will not turn on at any cost. I evidently decided disassemble skyduck to see if it was a connection error I made but alas it was not the case. I am going to give it a try once more and leave the battery to charge overnight.