Log 3/15/2011

Today in class I finally finished assembling the first system in my project and it didn't work.  The gear shafts weren't straight enough.  Tonight I took the project home and worked for 3 hours taking it apart for the third time and trying to find yet another solution.  While trying to hammer a nail in I cracked the box.  While trying to move other pieces around the wires on the receiver tore and I had to solder them again.  I had to cut and re-cut, drill and re-drill and the gears were still giving me trouble.  I can't honestly see this project getting done the way I originally planned.
There were some things I could not determine without having the product actually assembled and one of those things was the power of the first motor.  Once I assembled everything I realized that it was not strong enough to turn a second motor, the camera, and more gears.  Because of this and the time limit that is fast approaching I have decided to amend my design so that the camera will only turn 360 degrees and not tilt.  This will not be a devastating blow to the design seeing as the glass bottom of the boat is so small.
All that is left to do is paint my portion of the project and re-attach the support beams as well as glue on the plastic velcro.  Now that I have cut a major part of my work out I should be able to finish on time.

Update to Mr. Alfonse 3/14-18/2011

By the end of this week I hope to have all the inner components in place including the motor and battery pack.  I have to drill another hole for the gear shaft.  The gears should all be in place by the end of this week and I will be able to start work on the outer components including the camera and tilt mechanism.

Progress 3/11/2011

Fig. 1: View of half-assembled support box with descriptions of the parts of the box



Fig. 2: Second view of half-assembled box

All pictures taken by MM.

Log 3/11/2011

I left my project at home, so I am spending this class period updating my blog and calendar and typing up my mentor contacts.

Log 3/9/2011

Today I measured out where my gears need to be located inside of the box.  I drilled a shallow hole in the bottom of my box and put a piece of a a coffee stirer that would act as low friction base for the gear shaft into the hole.  I also glued the wooden pieces that will keep the first motor in place as well as the pieces of wood that will hold the receiver and battery pack in place.

Update to Mr. Alfonse 3/7-11/2011

Last week I lost two days of work because I had a class trip on Thursday and went home early on Friday.  Today I will finish sanding, hopefully early in the class period.  I should have the gears for my 360 rotation in place and working by the end of this week.

Update for Mr. Alfonse 2/28- 3/4/2011

Today I will be waiting for wood filler to dry.  While it is drying I will measure the gears and motors and determine the distances at which I will have to place the gears.  I will hopefully have the gears and mechanisms ready to install by the end of Friday.  I will be losing work time tomorrow because of the trip to New York, but hopefully I will still be able to meet my goal at the end of the week.