Last four weeks - 08/19- 09/13/2019

It is been a month since the last post, but we keep working. We have been busy these last weeks and the purpose of this post is to summarize the work done.

At this point in the summer, we spend most of our time working in collaboration with Bill James from Jpods. Our work on the 1/12th scale ended on several propositions of designs and mechanisms. We proposed interested solutions to deal with the gap and 3 different approches for the switch. All of that is accessible in the last post and will be explained with more details in our report. We hope that our work will be helpfull for the new teams in their projects. We spend time to introduce some of them to work done and issues met. 

Jacques-Hariel has worked with Bill, Ron and David on the suitcase scale system. We made several improvement on the model we shown in the last post (Fith & Sixth weeks). We learnt from the mistakes we made on the first track and Bill designed the new track to make it more precise, simple to assembly and stabler.

This is far from the final iteration of this track. It is so far, stabler and fair enough on the precision and the regularity of the lines. Despite that, we got some issues while the assembly. It is not enough intuitive and create sometimes confusion because many parts look the same. The main advantage with this model is that all the part are lazer cutted on the same shheet of wood. We do not have different profil (cylindar, plane etc...) so it is much more easy is to machine the parts.

The got the hard time on the podcar. It circulates perfectly on the track. The switch area is smooth and precise. We met issues when we started to integrate the sensors. We explained in the last post the different functions we are reaching by using sensors. 

At this point, we have all the codes (arduino) for each sensor and all the electronic setted up and working. We got disfunctionnements when we combine all the codes. We debuged the code several time so the problem might come from the electronic set up (wire, power, sudering...etc). We are about to remake the electronic by using methods to have less wires and less change to get a trouble.

In parallel, Jacques-Hariel designed a 10 meters track. This track will be in wood and assembly by screws. The main challenges where to make it simple to manufacture and cheap. 

The first model has as parameter the angle. We devided the curve by 8 (180deg/8 = 22.5deg). For many reasons, 8 was the optimal number (more details in the report). In this model, we use 3 layers, one profil of curved for the external side, and one for the internal side. The main advantage with this track is the fact we use only two profils to create the curves. Each profil is lazer cutted on eah side to get the 22.5 deg and on the long side to get the curve. 

This model is good, but regarding the commercial dimensions for woods, it is far to be optimal. It is expensive and generate a lot waste. We came up with the second model, using commercial lenght as parameter. This one is better and much cheapper. We use two layers and the same number of profil. But unlike the first model, we dont need to set the wood on a specific lenght. The profil is simpler, only two operations to machine (the curve on the long side and an angle on one side).

We still have work on it, especially on the supports. We will presente that work next week. 

Jacques-Hariel also worked on a previsional budget for the woods and a first FEA to ensure that 2 layers are enough. The track is designed to carry 30 kg.