What a roller coaster ride today! Thrills and disappointments - it's all part of the process. We are SO CLOSE to having a working robot! We were thrilled when the first electrical test prompted the running of the "lift" prop. But this was quickly followed by frustration when putting the lift prop into reverse blew the fuse in the system! Arghh!But, we persevered! We replaced the fuse, checked and adjusted a few wires and tried again. Another fuse blew; clearly some wires were still touching! We investigated the control box and found a few soldering "blobs" that were definitely making contact with each other. We cut and rerouted one wire, re-soldered, and retried the power connection. This time success! All three props worked in both directions! But, when we closed the control box lid securely, the fuse blew again. The tight fit of the wires inside the control box must have caused some "squishing together" of the wires when we secured the lid.
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Hmmm; is that solder or tin foil???!!! We never said it was pretty!
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Paige and Josh search for touching wires.
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Hilary, Paige, and Josh continue the search for faulty wires.
We were out of time - and fuses! So, tomorrow we file down some of the excess solder, recheck the wires, and try again. We are SO CLOSE!
I have attached an audio file from some of today's events. You can hear the excitement, fun, and frustration - check it out!