Week 30 - Final presentation and Maker Faire

Our final presentation took place on Friday, 5/11/18, and is included below: The entire Maker Faire event took place from Thursday to Sunday, 5/17 - 5/20. Thursday morning was for setting up and testing. Ben was able to attend and make sure everything was running smoothly. One of the track supports had to be removed so we also removed a station. Other than that, everything was going smoothly. On Friday, Ben and Coby went to Maker Faire and for the entire duration of the day, they were able to have at least one podcar running at a time, while the others would be taken off intermittently for small tweaks. After the event, there was free food and beer available for all the Makers. Coby and Andi attended Maker Faire on Saturday, and throughout the day, there were at least one or two podcars running at one time. We eventually were able to have all three running relatively successfully. One ultrasonic sensor had to be swapped out because the pod kept stopping randomly and as the day went on, our motors started to slow down. By the end of the day, our main motors, and our few back-up motors had seized and were nonfunctional. We had one podcar working, ready for Sunday, and after we went back to the SSW warehouse, we grabbed all the remaining motors we could find. For maintenance of the motors, one option was to open the back and remove any metal shavings that had accumulated around the armature. On Sunday, Ben and Andi went to Maker Faire. We had a couple motors that we immediately strapped onto the nonfunctional pods. We were able to have two of the podcars running on and off, for about an hour or so. After we ran out of working motors, and the rest of the ones we had seized, Ben went to Frys to see if they had any suitable DC motors. Unfortunately the motors were not small enough, and our other options, which included hobby shops, were closed. We removed some of the motors and placed the podcars on the track. While we explained the project to spectators, kids would come push the podcars around the track, and we were still able to attract a significant amount of interest in Spartan Superway.

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