Happy New Year
Stephen Bridges
Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and got whatever presents they wanted, or
even just some peace and quiet. This month we've got two meetings in the
NSME, both Mondays at 7pm. They are the 10th, and the 24th. The 10th will
be a project night, and the 24th a talk evening.
On the 10th, either bring your own project to work, on, or I'm sure Martin
would appreciate help cutting parts for his gargantuan tarantula. Spare
cardboard is also still needed for this, in great quantities. Larger pieces
are particularly useful, due to their rarity, so if you see a shop throwing
surplus packing materials out...
On the 24th it would be nice to have some short talks. The burden on these is
particularly low as the question and answer section is normally longer than
the original lecture. Volunteers are appreciated! Our request to have a stall
at the Maker Faire in March has been accepted, one thing to discuss is whether
we want flyers to hand out, or trinkets to show off.
Finally it would be nice to have a think about any particular events we'd like
to organise in the year. I know rocketry has been popular and we can do that
again, although we've learnt it's very sensitive to the weather. Perhaps
thoughts on other activities or competitions we could try?
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PS Anyone want pizza on the 10th? Could try a Dominoes delivery or collect on
the way over.
Stephen Bridges
Would anybody be willing to detour past Wollaston when visiting on the 24th?
There's a chap there who's been doing balloon launches that I thought would be
a good candidate for a talk, but he has no transport here.
Thoughts?
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Martin Raynsford
charles webb
Martin Raynsford
charles webb
Stephen Bridges
Thanks all that came on the 10th, it was good to see people after Christmas.
I've put the pictures that I took up on Flickr, they're tagged up as usual.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/northackton/
The next meeting is the 24th, and I'll open up the space from 7pm, but come
down as you like. Our talk will be at 8pm, and will hopefully be on high
altitude ballooning. I'll get pizza in, so bring money if you want some; it's
been pointed out that the funds we're raising aren't really for food.
Finally, I realise I've not really been sharing the "group project" of the
cardboard racer project. Apologies for this! I'd like to run a session in
the hackspace in early February to make the track, if people are interested.
Depending on people's availability I'd suggest Sunday the 13th or some weekday
evenings beforehand.
Moreover if anyone wants to get involved in the car end of the project, email
me and I can go through the tasks remaining.
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Martin Raynsford
So what needs doing in preperation for this track day as I suspect there is lots than can be done before we actually get there?
What needs doing with the track? Are we looking for a newer more compact design with more layers on it?
And with the vehicle side of things, could I help by looking up how to improve the vehicle, making a bumper for it, making new springs for the suspension or even mocking up a race wheel to control it with?
I guess there are lots of small little things like that that could be done which would really help us get this group project achieved right?
Adrian Godwin
-adrian
Stephen Bridges
> So what needs doing in preperation for this track day as I suspect there is
> lots than can be done before we actually get there?
> What needs doing with the track? Are we looking for a newer more compact
> design with more layers on it?
Yes, the track needs to be more compact, but I think it can't be too complex.
The batteries on the car will only hold up for about 10m at best, and then
need charging for 20m. They will also need time to cool, there's no way of
forcing air across them as they're in the centre of the car.
I'm sketching some new designs at the moment. I think we've really only got
1m x 3m though to work in, and the car probably shouldn't climb more than
0.5m. This leaves another 1m x 3m for anybody going up, a table to sit
around, and a TV and space to sit for the player.
> And with the vehicle side of things, could I help by looking up how to
> improve the vehicle, making a bumper for it, making new springs for the
> suspension or even mocking up a race wheel to control it with?
Thanks Martin, a race wheel would be very helpful. I was originally thinking
of purchasing a steering wheel and driver's seat from a scrapyard, but I'm now
concerned the seat would be heavy, take up valuable transport space, and move
during transit and crush cardboard.
> I guess there are lots of small little things like that that could be done
> which would really help us get this group project achieved right?
One part I haven't looked at is the timing of the circuit laps. There's
supposed to be free software that uses a webcam to recognise different cars as
they cross a finish line, and would be simpler to set up perhaps than Adrian's
beam break-detectors.
Also Adrian's pointed out that we only have one car, which isn't much of a
spare. If anybody wants a fun car to play with at the end of the Maker Faire,
they could buy one and let me borrow it as a backup for that weekend?
My plan for the vehicle is to attach to the plastic shell that surrounds it,
so this shell can be shared between cars. We couldn't have races but we could
have twice the uptime while car batteries are charging.
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