Sunday, September 28, 2008

Robot . . . The Revenge

I'd make a big long post here, but all I did was re-superglue some stuff and solder it together properly. It still needs some work, but this video is pretty funny, so here it is!


Cheers!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

A robot with no name . . .

So, by popular demand (from all two of you. And, okay, one of them was me), this week I did a robot, and in doing so, discovered several special things. One, soldering is harder than I remember. Two, when following instructions, it helps to get all of the proper parts. So I set up my little laboratory, and got to work.


So, following the tutorial, I ran into a few problems. One, I had the wrong battery casing. Well, that was about the entirety of the problem, as I could solder to it, or affix the motors to it, so I wound up creating a horrible monstrosity by comparison. Oh, and it also didn't work.

And in short order, with a few changes, I completed the basic model.


Then I tried to plug in the batteries, and it broke.


At this point, I figured out that I couldn't actually glue the motors on (as there wasn't enough surface area for the glue to make a strong bond), so I slept on it and figured out that I could glue on some balsa wood to make a larger surface to glue to. And thus was born this monstrosity!


And it kind of worked! It spun in circles! So I think all I have to do to make it actually functional is reverse the wires on one of the motors. But, naturally, it broke. And, in attempting to fix it, it broke even more. So I'm calling this one a bust for the time being and moving onto other things. Again, I will return! And perhaps fail less.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Balsa Wood Plane: The Revenge

Okay, so the last time I embarked upon this quest, the results were less than auspicious. So I retreated for a while, to the realm of sewing and coming up with other ideas. But I eventually just figured that I already had the materials, I'd give it another whirl. Building off of the mistakes of last time, I made sure to assemble the fuselage and propeller before attaching the wing, and also giving the wing a higher aspect ratio, to make it more capable of gliding/getting lift. I also ran out of balsa wood rods, so I cut the frame of the wing out of a flat piece, which I think/hope reduced the weight significantly. So, at twelve inches long, with a twelve inch wide wing, I present the second incarnation of the Pogue Balsa Wood Plane.



So, after trying several powered flights in light winds, I found that it actually functioned somewhat better as a glider. And thus, after several attempts, there it goes:



I think this is going to be a recurring theme here, with different configurations and more complicated airfoils. Stay tuned! Next time: V-tail!