Hardware Assembly
The hardware kit is at the core of this project. But it comes in separate pieces, so some assembly is required.
List Of Components
The LiFi hardware prototype contains the following components:
1 x Master Brick 3.1
Make sure your LiFi kit contains all components in the required amount before you proceed with the following instructions.
Assembly Instructions
1. Parts Overview
The image below gives an overview of what's in the hardware kit. We'll need all of that for the assembly of the LiFi-prototype in the subsequent steps.
Update: In contrast to the image below, in your hardware kit, there are only 4 mounting kits (the small plastic bags with screws in it) instead of 6, and the 7-pole cables have different lengths (1 x 6 cm and 3 x 15 cm, instead of 4 x 15 cm as shown in the image).
2. Remove Foil From Mounting Plates
We'll now prepare the mounting plates for assembly. Gently remove the blue foil that protects the surface from scratches.
3. Attach Spacers To Mounting Plate 1
Add four 10 mm spacers on the first mounting plate in exactly the positions shown in the image below. Make sure you use the smaller 10 mm spacers with screw threads on both sides. Attach screws from the back of the mounting plate and add a small plastic ring to each screw (see below).
4. Attach Spacers To Mounting Plate 2
Now, we add four 10 mm spacers to the second mounting plate in the configuration shown below. Note that this time, instead of screws, we use four 12 mm spacers, which have a screw on one side, and connect them to the 10 mm spacers from the back of plate 2. Do not use any plastic rings in this step.
5. Install Master Brick 3.1
Next, we mount the Master Brick 3.1 to the mounting plate 2 using two of the 10 mm spacers on the right side from the previous step. We use two 12 mm spacers with screws to fix the Master Brick. Make sure you use two plastic rings to protect the Master Brick's board.
In the same step, add two 12 mm spacers to the 10 mm spacers on the left side as well. Use two nuts (!) (see image below) here instead of the plastic rings.
6. Plug In 7-Pole Cables
Now that the Master Brick is tightly attached to the mounting plate, we can add the 7-pole cables for connecting the other devices to the Master Brick later on. It is important which cables, 6 cm or 15 cm, you attach to which socket: In the image below, the two sockets facing the bottom of the picture must be equipped with the 2 x 6 cm 7-pole cables. Plug in the 2 x 15 cm 7-pole cables in the sockets facing the top of the picture.
7. Connect Mounting Plates
Now, you must put the first mounting plate on top of the second as shown below. Fix the plate with four screws and add plastic rings to protect the mounting plate's surface.
8. Install OLED 128x64 Display
Use two screws with plastic rings and attach the OLED 128x64 Display to the right pair of spacers on mounting plate 2. Make sure the display's socket faces the side of the mounting plate where you plugged in the 6 cm 7-pole cables during the previous step (north in this image).
9. Install Rotary Encoder
Next to the OLED display, install the Rotary Encoder Bricklet using two screws with plastic rings. Make sure the rotary encoder's socket faces the same direction as the OLED display (north in this image).
10. Install Color Sensor and LED
Turn around the device so that you are facing mounting plate 1 with the four 10 mm spacers we installed in step 3. These become now equipped with the Color Bricklet 2.0 (left pair of spacers) and the RGB LED Bricklet 2.0 (right pair of spacers) using four screws and plastic rings in total. Make sure the sockets of both devices point upward and in the same direction as the sockets of the OLED display and rotary encoder.
11. Connect Devices With 7-Pole Cables
Finally, we connect the four devices (OLED display, rotary encoder, color sensor, LED) to the Master Brick using the four 7-pole cables. Make sure you attach the OLED display to the 6 cm 7-pole cable. The color sensor, LED and the rotary encoder must be connected using the 15 cm 7-pole cables.
That's it! You have successfully completed the assembly of the LiFi hardware prototype. For communication between two robots, the color sensor and the LED will be facing a second LiFi hardware device in another robot. That way, the first robot's color sensor is facing the other robot's LED and vice versa.
However, for developing the required software in this course, it can be an extra barrier to require two LiFi hardware prototypes. Luckily, the prototype can be easily adjusted to communicate with itself. We'll do this in the last step.
12. Mount the LED in Front Of The Sensor
In this last step, you mount the RGB LED 2.0 to the Color Sensor so that the LED faces the sensor. To achieve this, remove the two screws that hold the color sensor and replace them with two 12 mm spacers. Add four more 12 mm spacers, two on each corner. This gives us a good distance for the LED's light to shine on the color sensor (not too close and not too far away). Finally, fix the RGB LED Bricklet with the two screws and two plastic rings it was previously fixed. Place the LED so that the light faces the sensor (!).
Alright, now we can move on to install and configure the software part of our project. In the next section, we'll set up our development environment.
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