Sensors / Actuators Motors This year's motors are manufactured by Mabuchi and were donated to us by Polaroid. To "Lego-ize" your motor, you'll need to do the following: put a piece of 1/16" heatshrink over the shank of the motor and shrink it. Then put two layers of 1/8" heatshrink over the shank and shrink them (three layers total now). fit one of the small 8-tooth gears over the heatshrink. Put a drop of hot glue or epoxy over the end to hold it on. Make sure neither the heatshrink or the gear are exerting significant force on the body of the motor when you turn the shank with the gear. Servos Servos are almost ready to use right after they come out of their packaging. All you need to do is get a piece of male header, 3 units long, and stick it into the servo's plug. This then can plug into the servo port. Make sure that you put the black wire into the slot labeled "DG" in the servo ports. Shaft Encoders Shaft encoders are very similar to similar sensor wirings. The signal pin is just moved over so that it fits onto a 3 unit male header. Again, check to make sure that all pins are going into the right ports on the board. This wiring diagram illustrates how to wire the shaft encoder for the Skiff board. Reflectance Sensors Reflectance sensors are wired as they are shown in the notes. We have found that the photo-transistor works best with the Skiff board. We have not been able to successfully use the trapazoidal reflectance sensor on the skiff board. The ultra-bright red LED works well with this photo-transistor. This wiring diagram illustrates how to wire this sensor for the Skiff board. Other Sensors We have tested switches, potentiometers, and CDS cells on the skiff. These should be wired between signal and ground, with the exception of the potentiometer, which should be wired to all three inputs. Inferred beacons and detectors have not been tested. These are wired into the shaft encoder ports. More on this soon.