08/02/17 – Last Meeting Before THOR!

Today in engineering, we worked heavily on Clockwork as well as Veronica and the t-shirt cannon. We also spent time sorting out what to take to THOR and what to leave in our build space. On Clockwork, we replaced a Lexan panel on the top of our robot used to guarantee that the rope will make contact with the winch and that there is enough surface area on the top to activate the touch pad. In this process, we taught a new member of our team how to drill, rivet, and use machinery with 5190 levels of safety. We also fixed the bumpers. There was a right angle bracket that had gotten knocked off during our driving practice on Saturday. This bracket was a point of attachment for our bumpers, so naturally, it had to be fixed for safety. We replaced the bracket and also replaced the Lexan polycarbonate panel above it which is used to protect the pneumatic systems and was also damaged during driving practice. During this process, we also taught, even more, new team members the safety behind the machines we use and how to keep themselves safe. We also fixed the wrench that is used in the winch. The winch’s ratchet was messed up during a particularly rough climb. On Veronica, we continued to prototype the gear mechanism. As THOR is this weekend,  most of our focus went to Clockwork, but we also continued experimenting and watching videos to see how gears would function in different types of intake and which would be the most efficient, especially with our driver’s approach to the airship. On the t-shirt cannon, we continued to work on the electrical to get it to run as soon as possible. We are now waiting to find a better router to complete the t-shirt cannon.