Things are finally starting to come together! Thursday meeting I saw some people beginning to really work on their own on the robot and Friday it took off. Groups were autonomous, fabricating and designing like I've never seen this team work. Friday night I brought home the drive plates I spent so much time designing, and Mr. Reif machined during the week. It was not easy to design, and not easy to machine. The hardest part is probably that after the dozens of hours that went in to designing and fabricating these plates, they have some serious design flaws/issues. First of all, even though I spent a lot of time on them, I was still rushing through and did not CAD all the parts of the drive modules. Because I couldn't see how all the parts would go together in 3D, I placed the mounting points for the gearbox/motor assemblies higher than is feasible. The current placement interferes with the frame and tread.
I worked last night after our meeting, and will continue to work today on a solution. I need to design a sub-plate that essentially moves the mounting holes for the gearbox down. I have the material here to fabricate these plates assuming I am able to finish. Also on the list of things to do today is spending 2 hours or so putting up flyers for our upcoming ewaste fundraiser on February 11th.
Here are a few pictures of the Drive Plate in CAD and the fabrication process...
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