PComp – Final Project Update 1: Troubled Waters
November 23, 2009It is Monday night. I have tried several ways of building the legs, and I have found resistance on an engineering front for all.
Design Changes – I changed the concept a bit, now using the legs horizontally, as the vertical push of the cricket could possibly shove the surge protector in the air and not away from the wall. The legs now looked similar to a frog. The mechanisms are the same. In addition, I decided to add a ramp for the surge protector, so the frog design would have more of a lateral push.
1. Springs on the Leg – bought a jar opener to provide me with some metal legs and a mousetrap. It turned out the mousetrap didn’t provide me with enough strength to have the legs pop open. I went out and bought a rat trap to provide me with a stronger snap. It was very strong(and fairly dangerous.) I then tried to add my legs into the spring mechanism, but then had no way of getting the metal center back onto the wooden board.
2. Servo on the Leg – I decided brute force would be nice and borrowed a Mega servo hitec HS-805BB+. The plan is to attach it to a $16 desk lamp(after removing the heavy lamp head.) and use the hinged body as the legs. The servo needs it’s own power supply, so after several drafts of supply apparati, I finally used a 12V plug with a voltage regulator. However, the servo doesn’t seem to be receiving power. I’m afraid I shorted the servo, but there was no indication to prove as such.
Current Status – At this stage, I am testing the Servo to see if I blew it up. if so, I’ll need to buy 2 more at $40 a pop: one for the person who lent it to me and one to me to continue to work on the project. I will buy another rat trap tomorrow. I will use each side of the trap arms and attach legs to them and then joint those legs to longer legs which will connect directly to the wall. V1 – If I can create a mechanism to set off the spring and A) not kill anyone and B) snap the legs, then I’ll continue on the course. Likewise for V2, I should be able to get assistance on the legs tomorrow in regards to the servo, and if I can get the servo to work, I believe I can either attach it to the leg or simply connect it directly to the surge protector and have the hobgoblins kick off directly from the wall or come up with a new Trojan animal.
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