Day 3: 4 Defenses Down, 4 To Go

Today we continued to test our prototypes and build defenses. We're focusing on defense building right now so that we can test our future prototypes more completely and also have a complete field for our scrimmage in week 6.

Today we made a sally port and a portcullis and gathered all the pieces for a cheval de frise and drawbridge. We also hope to get the rocky terrain and ramparts done by Thursday at the latest. In addition, we plan on making sheetmetal duplicates of a few defenses with help from our sponsor, Solarcraft.

Portcullis

Sally Port Back

Sally Port Front

On our prototyping side, we are focusing largely on the test drivetrain. We were able to chain up both sides of the drivetrain and test how pneumatic wheels fare against the moat and rockwall. Unfortunately we faced some issues with chain slipping, chain tensioning, and bottoming out.

As we were chaining up the second side, we over tensioned the chain which caused the gearbox to act up. It made the pinion gear skip and made the left side suffer more resistance.

After trying a few different solutions, we realized none of them were effective or permanent, so our next plan of action is to make a westcoast style, 6 wheel drivetrain out of 2x1 tubing. We plan to get a quick CAD model up of how we want wheel spacing before jumping into fabrication.

Our last ditch effort was to toss a flangeless bearing where it was bottoming out in an attempt to make it easy to cross. Unfortunately, it was very ineffective.

We also plan to upgrade our flywheel shooter prototype so that we can adjust different variables. We've also begun a prototype for an over-the-bumper style collector similar to that of Miss Daisy XI. Our overall strategy for now is to imitate Team 254: The Cheesy Poofs and their style of prototyping by making a modular drivebase that we can attach prototypes to and and test on.

- Spectrum

“Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery - it's the sincerest form of learning.” - George Bernard Shaw