Day 1 of Work: 5/5/17
Today, we formally assigned tasks to each group member, began to look at the parts we have to work with, and tested some old ROVs. Assigning tasks was a good first step, because (at least for me) it helps focus what initially seemed to be an enormous task. One important thing we figured out is that none of us have more than rudimentary knowledge of soldering, so that's something I'm going to learn over the weekend. Testing the robots gave us a feel for how we should, and more importantly, how we should not build ours. Two of the three robots we tested had non-intuitive steering, but the third one made it clear that we could build it the way we wanted.
Off the top of my head, the hardest part will probably be making sure that everyone stays on task, and does what needs to be done. It's easy to get overwhelmed by all the things that need to be done, which could cause us to lag behind.
Day 2: 5/8/17
Today we began to watch safety videos and proactive the skills that we'll need to work on our respective tasks. I practices stripping wires, and twisting them together for soldering. We ran out of time to actually start practicing soldering, but that should start next class. There were no real challenges with this, besides getting the finer points of wire stripping down. Next class, I will begin to practice soldering, and hopefully begin work on the motors.
Day 3: 5/10/17
Today we practiced soldering wires, and began to work on the motors. Soldering practice was fairly simple, especially because Henry and I don't need to do much of it. We mostly spent the day looking at the parts we'd need to assemble the motors, and watching the videos on how to put them together. One of the begets challenges that we're discovering is how often we need to go to Ms S for questions, which creates a bottleneck to our progress. Next class, we will hopefully finish the motors.
Day 4: 5/12/17
Today, Henry and I made a lot of progress with the motors. We assembled the mechanical parts together, and cut a class set of PVC segments that everyone will need. The hardest part was probably figuring out how to put everything together in the right order, as well as neatly. I hope that next class, we will solder the motors.
Day 5: 5/15/17
I was absent on this day, and made up the time during tutorial on 5/18. I spent tutorial finishing soldering our motors, so we could begin the waterproofing. I tried to start putting on the hot glue, but had difficulty putting on a thin enough layer of glue.
Day 6: 5/17/17
Today, Henry and I began to solder the motor connections that he put together while I was absent. This was pretty difficult, because all the wires are really close together, and it was hard to hold them apart. We got four wires done today. I also went out to the pool with Dila while she began to figure out buoyancy. Tomorrow we'll waterproof the motors, and attach them to the frame.
Day 7: 5/19/17
Today, Henry and I finally finished the motors. We waterproofed all six wires, and attached them to the frame. Now that our work is mostly done, we helped Dila with buoyancy and began to discuss how to complete the tasks. I think this is going to be the hardest part, what with the time crunch and all. Next class, we'll hopefully be able to built our tool.
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