Week 5 Design Update

All of the parts of team Rubber Band Gunner's mechanism that needed to be created have finally been created and are ready for assembly. The gear was fabricated using a 3D printer, and the base and launching arm were constructed from wood by team member Andrew Muise. Also, a servo motor of appropriate size for the mechanism was purchased from RadioShack. This is because the servo motor belonging to the Sparkfun Inventor's Kit was too small compared to the servo motor imported into SolidWorks from grabcad.com earlier in the design process. The rest of the Inventor's Kit parts shown in earlier testing are still being used in the mechanism. Here is a picture of all of the mechanism's parts:

During this week's meetings, the team began assembly of the mechanism. So far, both the launching arm and servo motor have been attached to the base using screws. The servo horn needed to be firmly attached to the gear in order for testing of the entire mechanism to begin. However, the adhesive purchased to attach the two was not strong enough for testing. The team's current objective is to find adhesive or tape that is not only strong enough to attach the gear to the servo horn, but also strong enough to allow up to four rubber bands to hold onto the gear while the mechanism is operating. Once a solution to this problem is found, initial testing can begin.

For now, here are the drawings of all parts of the mechanism that were created from scratch on SolidWorks.

Gear

Base

Launching Arm

During production of the base and launching arm, a decision was made to cut the hole for the servo motor entirely through the side of the base. This design is slightly different than the initial base design, shown in the week 3 design update. The design was adjusted in SolidWorks, and the update is displayed in the drawing above.