Friday, July 24, 2015

Otakon 2015 Full Day Test Run results

Test ran Crescent Rose for one day at Otakon 2015. Gained valuable feedback that is listed below.

Problems:
-The pneumatic system ended up being leaky. Seems like my previous tests were only good for stopping major leaks. The tests did not catch the minor leaks and this ended up bleeding out any air in the system after a recharge. Thus the transformation did not happen as often as I would have liked.

-The foam board part of the claw attached to the 2 wire Vex motor was not as strong as I had thought. I did sort of expect this one as I had a hunch that there would be issues here.

-The 3 wire Vex motor is very specific with moving. There would be times where the Vex motor would move just as expected and some times where it won't budge at all. Still not positive of the exact  cause but it seems to be a combination of weak motors, and the motor not clutching the metal rod successfully.

-Weight. This was sort of expected, making things move also tends to make them heavier. 

Good things:
-The pneumatics were an absolute beast when they had the air to work. Extremely reliable when they did move and the gun part of the prop had almost no damage besides some minor foam board peeling.

-The 2-wire Vex motor worked beyond what I had expected. It moved 100% when I needed it to and was strong enough that it probably aided in the foam board degradation where it was attached to in the claw.

Future possible improvements:
-Change material of the claw
As expected most of my problems came from the claw. Future improvements would be to change the material of the claw to something more solid. Plastic is most likely a probable replacement. Weight might be an issue.

-Replace the 3-wire Vex motor with a 2-wire Vex motor.
This would improve reliability of the second section of the claw by simplify the controls as a micro controlled would not be needed in that case. This would also give it more strength. Only issue is that it weights more than the 3-wire and gearing might have to be tweaked.

- Fix the leaks
The leaks have defiantly caused a problem and I have a good idea on where it might be. Most air issues are where the brass fittings are. Need to tighten them and see if that fixes it.

-Find a better air source.
Would be really convenient to have a better compressor so that air is available all the time. This would also fix the leaks problem as a compressor that runs on battery would have air all the time. Leaky system? Just add more air!

Crescent Rose Fix #1

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