Monday, October 10, 2005
Problems and solutions.......
Friday proved to be a very busy day for our team. I think that is an understatement..
We started out the day by threading out wiring and video cable through a length of 1/2 inch line. Building an umbilical proved to be more time consuming than we thought. Once the umbilical was complete we moved on to bigger things.
One half of the group mounted the camera housing to the frame. To do this we chose springs over U-bolts. The other half of our group tested our thrusters and the wiring.
Can you say "Direct Short"????? Yes melting wiring. We tested all our wires found that our new on/off power switch was the cause of all our problems. After a lot of time and frustration, problem solved.
We think we are ready to attach the video cable, "pot" the hole and mount the thrusters. Test flying this afternoon was looking good. Looks can be deceiving. We ran the video cable backwards..... Yes backwards!!! Our cameras would have to be on the surface with our monitor on the vehicle...
On to our next challenge... More for documentation purpose than I think anything we wanted to test our thrusters with props to see how much the amperage changed in water verses air.... So off we went with Don's amp meter, a bucket of water and high hopes.... Let's just say Murphy's Law..... "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong"
Next, initially we were running good and the test was a success then the amps dropped suddenly. I discovered that our props were free spinning on the shafts. At the end of our rope and all most out of time it was very apparent that the only water we would see today was the bucket full that our prop test problems were born in. We were all ready to call it a day. So we packed up the "Ugly Orange Bot" and moved to the shop to find more solutions for what the day had produced a growing list of problems... The truth we the 4 of us sat around and debated for about 30 minutes, Threw in the towel, and called it a day. With plans to return on Sunday we left. Sunday produced no work for the team. But it did produce a visit from the umbilical fairy. Who came by the shop and re-routed our video cable..... Another problem solved.
We started out the day by threading out wiring and video cable through a length of 1/2 inch line. Building an umbilical proved to be more time consuming than we thought. Once the umbilical was complete we moved on to bigger things.
One half of the group mounted the camera housing to the frame. To do this we chose springs over U-bolts. The other half of our group tested our thrusters and the wiring.
Can you say "Direct Short"????? Yes melting wiring. We tested all our wires found that our new on/off power switch was the cause of all our problems. After a lot of time and frustration, problem solved.
We think we are ready to attach the video cable, "pot" the hole and mount the thrusters. Test flying this afternoon was looking good. Looks can be deceiving. We ran the video cable backwards..... Yes backwards!!! Our cameras would have to be on the surface with our monitor on the vehicle...
On to our next challenge... More for documentation purpose than I think anything we wanted to test our thrusters with props to see how much the amperage changed in water verses air.... So off we went with Don's amp meter, a bucket of water and high hopes.... Let's just say Murphy's Law..... "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong"
Next, initially we were running good and the test was a success then the amps dropped suddenly. I discovered that our props were free spinning on the shafts. At the end of our rope and all most out of time it was very apparent that the only water we would see today was the bucket full that our prop test problems were born in. We were all ready to call it a day. So we packed up the "Ugly Orange Bot" and moved to the shop to find more solutions for what the day had produced a growing list of problems... The truth we the 4 of us sat around and debated for about 30 minutes, Threw in the towel, and called it a day. With plans to return on Sunday we left. Sunday produced no work for the team. But it did produce a visit from the umbilical fairy. Who came by the shop and re-routed our video cable..... Another problem solved.
// posted by Kim Hyer @ 8:44 AM 
