Thursday, June 21, 2007

Meeting 006

With our Fearless Leader off in the Wilds of Florida this week, we were concerned that we might not be able to make much in the way of progress. We need not, however, have been concerned! Our numbers were sorely depleted -- it was just me, Irena, and Birt. Nevertheless, we accomplished much more than anyone could have expected.

With the extra rack parts our F. L. sent us, we extended the track that the sorter will travel on. We put together a prototype bin to hold the sorted candies, but we encountered a major problem -- we don't have enough of the regular Lego pieces! We must address this problem with our F.L. when he returns.

Birt had to depart a bit early, so for the last fifteen minutes it was just me and Irena. We built a support for the sensor array and connected it to the track. We were even able to test it with the sorter and it was great -- it moves under the sensor array with almost no snagging. We will have to program carefully to ensure that the sorter is exactly horizontal -- or else we'll have to use a 1/4 height separator to raise up one or both ends of the sensor array support, but that would allow ambient light in, which might skew our readings too much.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Meeting 005

Last week we tried to work as 2 teams with not so familiar ones ending in a single group and building a concept - rotating base - that successfully crashed at the end. This week we decided to work as a single team and see that the sorter prototype is taking shape and form of a working mechanism.

The idea to test was to slide the sorter back and forth and drop the M&M at appropriate position. I wish there would be photos to share: at the end of the meeting the chamber was moving smoothly and experimental drop of the M&M was accepted by a round of applause.

Next week we can try to use the same light sensor for positioning by scanning gray and yellow colored bricks (another picture could be placed here). Doug, our Lego Expert, will not be there with us. Happy Vacation Doug!

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Meeting 004

Revising the bucket ... an alterative design where the hoppers rotate ...