When we last spoke, S.A.R.A. had just received a much needed facelift. We redid the frame, adjusted the floats, painted the parts, and attached 4 of the 6 thrusters.The next step was to attach the wires of the thruster to a power source. The book recommends that we use a 12 volt DC battery. However, we came up with the idea of using a portable battery charger to give the ROV more power. Dajon attached the 4 thrusters that are on the base to the battery charger. He made sure to attach positive and negative connections correctly.
We attach the thrusters to the power source, making sure to watch the positive and negative connections.
Then we needed to attach the thrusters to a control device. The book recommended using a panel of 6 switches. One switch would make the ROV go to the left, one would make it go to the right, one to go forwards, one to go backwards, one to go up, and one to go down. However, we decided to use a joystick. We thought that this would give us better maneuverability. S.A.R.A. could go in all six directions but in a smoother fashion.
Dajon is working with Mr. Wagner to connect the wires of the thrusters to the joystick.
As you can see, Dajon is attaching the wires of the thrusters to a Spiderman joystick. This is actually one of two tester joysticks. We were lucky that Shakemah Dixon, one of our Teaching Assistants, and Kim Mensah, a member of the front office staff, donated the joysticks. Everyone in the school building wants to help bring S.A.R.A. to life. Once we have worked out all of the bugs, we will use a Dora the Explorer joystick. The students decided that since Dora travels around the world and S.A.R.A. is going to travel to Antarctica, that this is the joystick that we should use. They also mentioned that it matched the best because it has all of the colors that are on S.A.R.A. What do you think?
Dora the Explorer will help S.A.R.A. in her travels around the world.
Once all of the wires were attached, it was time to turn on the power and see if the thrusters worked. We tried putting S.A.R.A. in a cooler but she didn't quite fit. Luckily, I had a large plastic container that we were using to hold the supplies for making S.A.R.A. We emptied it and filled it with 5 inches of water. Then we put S.A.R.A. in the container and turned on the power. It was so exciting to see water shooting out of the thrusters. In fact, the water was coming out so fast that it started getting all over everything. Nobody cared because we were so excited to see S.A.R.A. starting to come to life.
We attached the thrusters to a battery charger and to a joystick. This resulted in water shooting out of each thruster.
Unfortunately, we did have a bit of a problem. The cord going into the joystick became very warm and the joystick's power light went out. It seems that the battery charger is too much power for the Spiderman joystick.
Now the question we need to answer is: What is more important, power or maneuverability? Do we use a 12 volt battery instead of the battery charger or do we use a 6 switch panel instead of a joystick? What would you do?
We really want to have both power and maneuverability. One possibility is to try to get a better ground wire. The students decided to have Mr. Wagner go to an electrical company and ask for advice. Norfolk Electrical was kind enough to donate some wire for our project. Mr. Wagner is going to speak with them this weekend and see if they have any ideas.
Check back next week to see what we end up deciding to do. We are going camping on Wednesday for three days and hopefully S.A.R.A. will come along for some fun in the water.