Devrover
JOURNAL
Title - DEV ROVER
Author - Anirudh Sahu
description - Dev Rover is your personal rover which can move on its own, it has a esp32 with a camera that helps it to idetify things and navigate through the surroundings. it can be controlled by voice commands ( with the help me MAX9814) and can be controlleed by its own web applivation. It also has a speaker which can play some cool sounds. Its also equipped with a tilted 1.3 inc Oled display which can help the developer to see and visualize things. It ill run on 3/6 LiPo battery. It has 4 dc motors controlled by L298N motor driver. It has a 3D printed body which is light weight and durable. It can be used for various purposes like surveillance, exploration, and off course to show off to your friends.
created_at - 2025-06-11
Total Time - 40 Hr
June 11th: researched around the topic and created a rough schematic and PCB
3 PM IST - 6:20 PM IST
Initially I started with creating a rough plan of what exactly to include in my project.
As its a smart rover ill need a few dc motor a couple of servo motors and a mini computer to make it smart.
So as this is my starting project I didnt really knew how to get started with the PCB designing. i used Easy EDA but still when I seareched for components There were wayy tooo many options so I was overwhelmed and confused then I selected a esp32 and a L298N I have a knowledge of physical components just the firmware is new then I made the intial connections with the esp32 but later I found that the ESP32 I was using didnt had a 5V power supply so I had to restart and find a new one which took a bit time and also I had to understand why this happened. next I created a rough pcb and a 3d view of it I'm now planning to try some other alternatives for the designing part.
Total time spend 3 hr
June 12th: Started with designing the case
6 pm ist to 10 pm ist
These were one of the worst hours in my journey. I started with the recommendations from others to use onshape but when I actually started I had a really hard time. first the models I imported had 300 parts so to move it to the center I had to select all which made my computer burst lol ( not literally ) then I learned about onshape it had very less tutorials also so still I managed but then again it started to lag too much. I literally couldnt think of anything else then I asked in slack so I'll start my journey with most probable fusion360 from tommorow. Todays day made me learn many things and I also have models of esp32, servo motor, dc motor, l298 motor Driver
Total time spend : 4 hr
Jun 13: Continue Designing the case
4 PM IST to 7:45 PM IST So I started with downloading Fusion 360, Its definitely better then Onshape, so I knew what exactly I wanted to get started on took some time to get familier to the software then got started with the actual work, imported to models took some more time then started to create a sketch and then a plane then a surface and excruded it to make a base. wwasnt sure with the dimensions so researched online to find the right dimensions. ill continue tomorrow with the case and planning to move to the electriv circuits next
Total time spend : 3.75 Hr
Jun 14: Continue with the planning and the 3D case
6:30 PM IST to 11:30 PM IST
Continued developing the model. Had some issue regarding how would the actual model look like but after exploring other ideas and designs I planned to make it in like a Box thats like a perfect robo shape lol, so I first researched for the components that ill be using and found there 3d models to import, due to budget constraint I droppeed the servo motors for the pickup thing. But I added the the mother components. Created the sketches for each model and had my case in 2 parts for top and bottom also added the screen. Took some time to seaerch online on how to do a thing but now I am familiar with the overall software so from today things will go on more fast!!!
Total Time Spend : 4 Hr
June 15: Changed the components and layout
7:15 PM IST to 11 PM IST
So today I continued with the case but then after reconsideration I reselected the components required, I replaced the 0.93 inch oled with 1.3 one and added other components like a speaker and a microphone to receive audio input and I also changed the overall layout so I removed the previous bodies and components and added the new also this time I kept in mind about where exactly each component will be in the final design. Now I have included all the models that I will be using in the final rover. I made sure that the 3D model that I was using is available on Amazon or other places and have the right dimensions so that I don't face any issue later. Some models weren't available on grabcad so I surfed the web for it.
Total Time Spend: 3.75 Hr
June 16: Designed the 3d structure especially for oled
I started with creating the base structure. firstly created the sketches for all components.then I worked for the oled display structure. It took a bit time but atleast I can see things turning into the model. Tommorow I'll try to complete the structure for all of the components.
Total time Spent: 3hr
June 17: Designed most of the model
Continuing the work that I did yesterday, took a bit long because first my sketch pallete disappeared asked for help but didnt found any solution both on internet and slack. Still I continued with the designing first I finished the bottom then insted of procastination I finished all sides also and added holes where ever needed, added a few holes on the base for esp and l298
Total Time Spent: 4.5 Hr
June 19: Completed the 3D model
Finished completing the 3D model, added the holes and improved some small details by taking feedbacks on slack. I will be using rgb strip around it so left a small hole near the oled stand to let the wires in
Total Time Spent: 2 Hr
June 20: Finished the Case and created the BOM
added a hole for the Camera, while creating the BOM I also noticed that the esp32 was having wrong holes so fixed it also improved the holes and fixed minor issues on the suggestions from others. Creating the BOM was the most important part, for India i couldn't find any website which had all the parts so at last i used Amazon. then the issue was there were many parts which had shipping cost more then the actual part cost. some had the minimum order quantity requirements. But Overall I got everything in 80-85$ which is quite good as of what I had thought initially. Time Spent : 3 Hr
June 21: Completed the code for the rover to move
Added a web server for the rover to communicate with and implemented the logics to move
Time Spent : 2.5 Hr
June 22: Completed the full Project
Implemented all the features in the code so that I have full code available when then hardware arrives, added the remaining parts. Researched about some small details that I could improve in the overall project.
Written the Readme for the Project. Added some cool details in the 3D model. Created the Circuit diagram
Time Spent - 6Hr ( including 1AM 23th)