Saturday, February 03, 2007

Saturday

Today we:
-worked on the crate with our wonderful parent volunteer, Mr Reichling. It's now at the painting stage, and we should be finished very soon (which is good, because the robot needs to ship very soon).
-worked on the whole ramp system
-sent Kersten to Ace and IDEO for hinges, allen keys, and advice
-skyped emily
-ate lunch
-drank tea
-made a mess/ work in progress
-cleaned it up
-tested the now complete (if somewhat flawed in the hinge and damper category) ramp system to see that it (mostly) WORKS! So that was cool. It looks like all our effort to design it has worked out.

So now we need to:
-see what sort of surface we want on these ramps
-see if we want to change the ramp release mechanism (cable and latches?)
-go to allen steel for possible ramp material and the aluminum axle rod for the arm
-figure out what we're going to do about our transmissions. The options are to buy the Andy mark ones, use last years' (which may not be legal, so we need to see what the rule book says about that), see what the authorities are going to do about the ones from this year, or ask Jim if maybe he can help us modify them
-go to IDEO monday at 5:30 to talk stuff over with Jim
-WRITE OUR LETTERS
-build the robot and win regionals and nationals

so get to work, everybody! (and if that isn't motivation enough, talk to Julia and see what phrase she uses)

2 comments:

HomogeneousTransform said...

You guys are totally kickass. So rockin. I loved seeing the ramp fall. I wish I had a 'record' button on my skype.

Hey, definitely let's tally the weight soon! Based on what Chrissy told me . . .

Chassis 20 lb

Tower of Power 10 lbs max (including motor / sprocket /chain)

Ramps 20 lbs (10 lbs each includes primary and secondary)

Motors and transmissions 20 lbs? That's four heavy motors and two heavy transmissions!!

You're not doing so bad!!! ;)

Okay, later kiddos.

My take on the transmission is to see what Jimmy has done first and then make a call after taking a look at how we can improve the current banebot situation . . . bane of our existence.

juleea said...

Hmmm...those weights seem on the low side, em. how unfortunate. The ramps are likely going to be heavier than 10lb each because the welded frames are going to be at least 6 lb and we still have to account for material on top, supports, hinges, and dampers.