Last week we posted a panicked blog about all the stuff we have to do. I am happy to report that we are right on schedule. What’s more, we’ve even been given an extension on our deadline due to our ordered parts not turning up! It is in our best interests to stick to the original plan as much as possible since the deadline for the press release, including 90sec video and images, has stayed the same so any extra time we use for MAKE is only eating away at our allocated TALK time.
So here is where we are with the making of our prototype. We’ve decided to build a spiral structure to house the sculpting arms which will be controlled by servo motors. It’s a bit more complicated to achieve but will do more for the aesthetics we believe. To do this, we’re using thin strips of plywood which we then glue together before wrapping them round a couple of cylinders made out of blue foam. Left overnight, the glue should set and the spiral will maintain its shape.
As for the electronics, we’re still waiting for the parts to show up. After a monster struggle last week we finally managed to get the servo motors to work. We still don’t know what the problem was. We followed the help tutorial word for word and double checked our circuitry but couldn’t get it to work. We sought out the help of a Year 4 PD student who had some experience in servo motors whose solution was a different Picaxe altogether. Funnily enough, it worked without any problems so we’ll be going with that. In summary, we have a fairly good idea how to write the code, all that’s left is to wire up the parts and hope for the best.
soundbydesign 