MONGOOSE Assembly Instructions

Introduction
Mongoose was designed as an introduction to Mechatronics

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Before you start
The Mongoose is a complex kit and skipping instructions is not advised, the method below is the quickest
and easiest method we could find. If you take your time the kit will provide you with a reliable, durable
and fun robot chassis for your experiments. The main stages of assembly are mechanical, electrical and
electronic. An x2 means you have to repeat this step twice for both the left and right halves.
The Mongoose contains many small parts and it’s advisable to keep any loose parts in a tray to prevent
loss.

MECHANICAL
Chassis PreAssembly

Modifing the gearbox frame

The center frame piece must me modified before assembly. The
front opening on both sides must be enlarged towards the
center as shown in RED by approximately 5mm and is easily
accomplished by carefully trimming the plastic with a small
modeling knife or filing the material away. This makes room
for the optical sensors.

Apply foam spacers to the gearbox x2

Apply a self-adhesive foam spacer to both left and right gearbox halves.

Apply optical interrupters to two encoder gears x2

Two of the BLUE gears require the addition of self-adhesive foil
illustrated in RED to act as light blockers for the optical sensors. With
a sharp x-acto™ knife carefully trim the excess foil along the shown
with the GREEN line. The foil blocks IR light from the normally
transparent to IR gears.

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Assembling the axles x2
Short 28mm axle (round)
Press fit the long yellow bushing as shown in the image.
Hint: the small brass bushings are 4mm…

Long 50mm axle (hex)

Thread a small silver grub screw into a brass hex hub.
Slide the hub assembly over the hex axle and tighten (very tight)
at 29mm from one end of the axle.
Hint: An easier method than
measuring is to preassemble
the long axle. From right to
left you need a brass spacer, silver collar, blue gear then yellow drive gear.
When the brass bushing is flush with the end of the axle tighten
the grub screw with the small Allen wrench included with the Mongoose kit.

Installing the motor pinion gear x2

On a flat surface simply press a small purple pinion gear on to each motor as shown, do not
press on the motor but instead apply gradual pressure to the motor shaft.

Attach metal chassis sides to gearbox halves x2

Using a 10mm screw mount as shown, do not tighten yet.

Using a single 10mm screw mount as shown, do not tighten yet. This short screw

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ELECTRICAL
The motor wiring harness x2
There are two sets of blue & yellow #22guage wire, they are approximately 13cm long with 12cm of
insulation, 2mm of insulation is removed at the connector end and 8mm at the motor end. Each motor
requires one large 0.1uf noise suppression capacitor, be careful not to mount the capacitor too close to the
motor as it will be difficult to slide to motor into the gearbox later in assembly. A simple method is to line
the top of the cap with the front of the motor housing. Now insert the 10mm bare end of the blue and
yellow wires with the capacitor as shown below. Carefully solder the capacitor and wires to the motor
terminals. With you wire cutters clip off the excess wire and capacitor leads.

Make sure you put the blue and yellow wires on as shown; else your motors
will run backwards. You can crimp the connector terminals to the 2mm bare end of the both wires. Hint
if you are good at soldering; a very small dab of solder to the crimp terminal after crimping will improve
the reliability of the harness.

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ELECTRONIC
Necessary Tools (not included in kit)
As with any electronic kit the following tools are essential:
• Low wattage fine tip soldering iron <50W
• Resin core solder
• Wire cutters or side cutters (small)
• Needle nose pliers (small)
• Slotted screwdriver (small)
• Phillips screwdriver (#1)
• Multimeter (Ohms, Volts)

Assembly

Final Assembly

Initial Testing

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 Parts List Mongoose Controller Board

Capacitors
C1,C2,C3 0.1uf Small Monolithic Capacitor
C4,C5 470uf Electrolytic 6.3V

Resistors ¼W 5% Carbon (tan body, 4 color bands)

R1,R5 220 Red, Red, Brown, Gold
R2,R3 4.7K Yellow, Violet, Red, Gold
R4 10K Brown, Black, Orange, Gold
VR1 10K Variable Resistor (Horizontal)

Semiconductors
D1 1N5817 Schottky Diode
D2 1N4148 Switching Diode
IR1,IR2 LTE-302 IR Emitter
Q1,Q2 LTE-301 IR Detector
U1 PIC18F2525 Microcontroller
U2 SN754410 Quad Half Bridge with internal diodes

Connectors
CON1 10 pin inline female connector
CON2 20 pin R/A inline female connector
CON3 2x5 R/A header
CON4,6 4 pin Molex KK male connector
CON3 2x5 R/A header
2x Spacers for Opto-Coupler pair

Miscellaneous
J1 Ferrite Bead
2x AA Battery Holder
1x 28pin Socket
1x 16pin Socket

Motors
Cx,Cx 0.1uf Large Green Motor Noise Suppressors

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Mongoose Gearbox Drive Train
The

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Mongoose Rotation Sensors

The Mongoose is equipped with two independent wheel rotation sensors

(one set per drive wheel). They are located on the gearbox and rotate 27x
faster than the drive wheels. The pair of light and dark zones will transition
4x per gear rotation remember it’s the transitions we’re counting so a single
rotation of a drive wheel will transition 108 times per rotation.
The sensors are connected directly to PORTB,4 (right) and PORTB,5 (left)

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Differential Drive

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Mongoose and other projects are available at

Retail Sales

255 College St. Toronto

Ontario, Canada
Tel (416) 977-9258
Fax (416) 977-4700
creatronpart@hotmail.com
http://www.creatroninc.com

Online Sales

Dealer Sales & Technical Inquiries

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4550 Dufferin St. Toronto
Ontario, Canada
Tel (416) 897-1962
sales@blueroomelectronics.com
http://www.blueroomelectronics.com

Info and all other inquiries info@blueroomelectronics.com

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