Why IGNIS-8's emergency stop is a latched, multi-source system that never resets itself: two independent latches, battery and operator triggers, a manual-only release, and a stop that is selective — the drives release while the camera gimbal and sensors stay live.
Richard's Blog
Cutting the thermal stream and SLAM load on IGNIS-8
Why my reconnaissance UGV kept throwing OVERLOAD, and how a lookup-table palette, a frame-rate cap and an offscreen raster blit took the thermal stream and the SLAM map from a saturated CPU to a smooth ride.
Battery rethink: prismatic PHEV1 vs cylindrical M50L
Comparing the Samsung PHEV1 prismatic 6S2P pack against a 6S21P LG INR21700M50L cylindrical candidate for IGNIS-8: OCV and power-limit curves, weight and space, and how both cell models are selectable in the VCU config.
The technical hurdles between the drawing board and the first drive
The problems between the drawing board and a working vehicle: a browser-fed watchdog that flipped the OVERLOAD badge, a palette filter that ate nine cores, a camera that refused to follow orders, and a map that stalled the handheld.
Project start
How IGNIS-8 came to be: a swollen cell on a battery production floor, a phone call, and the idea of a remotely operated platform that could look at it from a safe distance.
Leather Notebook Cover
Hand sewn notebook cover made from goat skin leather
!NEC MPi400 Namechange
To directly go out of harms way with legal problems, I changed the name of the project.
!NEC MPi400: Reverse Engineering the Keyboard Matrix
Create PCB; Do measurements; Use QMK; Have Keyboard! 😎
!NEC MPi400: Disassembly
Complete disassembly of the MobilePro 900
SoC/OCV Calculation
C source for SoC calculation based on open circuit voltage