About this video
The builder fits the Arduino onto the chassis using machine screws, with nuts and a washer to set its height. Mounting the board higher gives access to the USB port and lets wires run underneath it. The steps show how spacing and tightening keep a board firm and level.
You'll be able to
- explain why a washer spreads the load of a screw
- describe how spacers raise a board to free room underneath
- check that a mounted board is level and firmly fixed
Key words
- Washer
- A flat disc placed under a screw head or nut to spread the force.
- Spacer
- A part, such as a nut on a screw, that holds a board off a surface.
- USB port
- A socket on a board used to connect it to a computer for uploading code.
- Standoff
- A post that holds a board above a base.
- Level
- Flat and even, so no side of a board sits lower than the other.
Transcript
There we go. All right. And then itsy-bitsy washer. Oh. That was classic. All right, here we go. Itsy-bitsy washer. And the reason we want to use the washer is it just spreads the force of the screw out a little bit more, which can be useful. All right. So this is when it's going to be handy to have a needle-nose pliers.
And then we can take our screwdriver-- one of our little ones, like this guy right here-- and we're going to hold the-- Not on this side. Turn the screw on this side with a screwdriver. I'm going to make sure it's pretty tight, because these will come loose. If it's not really tight, it'll come loose, and if it does, it'll just make the parts rattle around on your board.
And I do think that the longer screws for this make sense, because they'll allow you to mount your Arduino further up than you would be able to if you were using shorter ones. Which will be handy, because you have to miss this thing, and if the Arduino is up a little higher, it'll be easier to access the USB, which you'll want for being able to upload code.
And the other reason why you want it up like that is that it will make it easier to run wires underneath it, if you need to do that. And for this one, I believe we do run a few wires underneath the Arduino. OK. So now we're going to see if the Arduino fits. Yes.
And it does. OK. So we want to make sure that we mount the Arduino high enough that we can still access that USB port. So the way we're going to do that is we'll take some of the same nuts that we used to tighten the machine screws down. We'll set them at a height on the machine screws, so that holds up the Arduino.
So it's probably about like that. OK. Again, having it mounted higher like that allows us to connect to the USB and run our wires underneath, which will be handy. OK. Before we connect the Arduino, we still need to mount the motors. OK. So we've just inserted the Arduino in place.
And I think we'll run these power wires underneath it or around it somehow. Go underneath it like this. And then, we're going to put these nuts on top the screw posts and tighten them all down to hold the Arduino firmly in place. Oh. There he goes. Maybe this one's magnetized.
Yeah, it is. And see this side, back here, is just a little bit lower than the other side. So what I'm going to do is-- I can fix that by just raising the nut back here, up just a little bit. There we go. I want to make sure that they're all about the same. Might be able to get the nuts going.
I think I'm just going to skip that. There's too many bits close to it. OK. So before I tighten this down all the way, I want to make sure. I'll test that. Well, actually, you know what? I'm going to go ahead, and tighten it down. Just because I may forget. OK.
That's pretty solid.
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