MouseAir Redesign in Progress

MouseAir Redesign

We are working away on designing and building Version 2 of MouseAir.  Following is the latest block diagram.

Goals

The goals for the redesign are:

• Reduced Cost – eliminate unnecessary parts and reduce cost of current parts
• Single Power Supply – original design had two 5V supplies and one 12V supply
• Improved Reliability – Mouse loading was only about 50% effective.  Cat detection was about 30% from the RFID and too short range for effective detection (requiring strategically placed treats to trigger – We will be publishing that video!).

Main Redesign

There are four main things we are working on:

• New Mouse Loading Mechanism – The current drop mechanism is unreliable, large and requires two servo motors.  We want a more visual reliable mechanism.  Current thoughts are a 45 degree channel with a one servo motor loading mechanism.  Below is a picture of the current mechanism.  Check out the launch video.

  

  

• New Case – We are 3D printing a case for MouseAir.  We are really tired of cutting foam and wood for cases.  We just started this project.  We will post pictures when we get there.

 

 

 

• Removal of the RFID

  

  sensors –   Even with a custom antenna, the range is too short.  Another problem is that the chip implanted in the cat (cat seen below) requires a 125KHz RFID system but is one of three possibly standards in the US, which ca not be read by our 125KHz RFID system.

• MouseAir PC Board – We want to simplify the wiring between units.  We also want the relays on the same board as the I2C bus.

See issue 5 of Raspberry Pi Geek Magazine for the full article on MouseAir Version 1.0.

Finally, below is a picture of the Cat (Panther) and one of his biggest fans.