Week of 3/24 - 3/28

This week, I started by designing a better cylinder and spinner for my contraption. When the band was on the older cylinders, it would keep sliding up and down and would often get stuck even though there was a slant that pushed it to the middle. My new design included a divot so that the cylinders would definitely keep the band in the middle and not allow them to slide out. I printed it out, and they were very efficient and kept the band in place without it sliding. I also needed to design a new way to spin the magnet, so I decided to ditch the idea of the arms that would spin the magnet and keep them in place since my new design already had something to keep it somewhat in place. I looked at the magnet, and there was a nut on the bottom that would be a good place to spin it, so I designed a part that would attach to the magnet and printed it out. However, I ran into some issues after I printed it out, and I realized it was because of the faulty caliper I had used. When I measured the nut on the bottom of the magnet, I used the only calipers I could find in the bin, which turned out to be ones that didn't work very well. The battery inside of them was not held in place and moved around a lot, which made it hard to use. I thought I had gotten it to work, but I hadn't, and the measurement I used was not correct. I redesigned the spinner with a bigger slot but it will not be done printing before Friday since we have gym on Thursday.

Earlier in the week, after I started the printing of the cylinders, I had some extra time, and I was thinking of some new ideas for my next project. I still have some time until I will get to work on it, and I still need to build the PCB for my current project but I wanted to do some preliminary research for it. I thought that my friend Euans's current RC car was a cool idea, so I decided to make an RC plane as planes are really cool and being able to make one that flies sounds pretty awesome. I looked into what materials and what shapes they generally have and I found that they typically use brushless motors, so I wanted to find one. Luckily, there was one that looked perfect for a plane in the supply closet, and it also had the attachment I would need for it. I also planned out the wings, and I think that the plane will end up being about 2 meters across. I also looked into where the center of gravity should be and I think that this will be an interesting project for the future.