Tuesday, August 28, 2007

UTAS Warman Finals

My AutoCAD model.

At midnight last night my tank-like vehicle still didn't move. A 6V motor running off a 5V battery via a PIC and little power transistor just didn't have enough to even rotate the rubber tracks. But the electronics worked great. Then at night it came to me in a dream, the components, the circuit diagram. As soon as the shops opened I drove out to Jaycar and bought another 12V motor and a 12V 1.2AH battery. Back home I hooked it up still using the 5V power for the PIC to switch the transistor, and the big 12V battery for the motor. Now our robot tank was powerfull and fast. I rushed to uni where we got only about 3 practice runs in. In practice it only got over the 65mm barrier once.

This was fitted with other contraptions but they were too embarasing to show since I didn't make them. I am pleased with the performance of the bare vehicle.

After a short presentation, we did our first official run. The tank lept into life (a little too fast really) and somehow got over both barriers and collected a golf ball as a bonus. Except the 7 second timer ran out just after the vehicle had already got to the end. So zero points for the first run. We changed the program to 5 seconds for the second run, but at the first barrier it broke a O-ring drive belt.

Pictured here is the drive sprocket, which I made on the lathe. I had to get out the calculator and plan this design!


With all that finished, I took the tank over to show Brandon and the kids. They loved it, and Brandon says he is now going to do engineering at uni. Mostly he wants me to teach him how to build little tanks. During the evening we got smoke to come out of the power transistor. Fun while it lasted.

You can see here the battery packs, and circuit board with the heat sink, and the motor with drive belt. It was all zip tied down at the lat minuite.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Mum and Dad


http://www.skrochester.zoomshare.com/1.shtml/August%202007/pages/6

It seams most weekends Mum and Dad go off to exotic locations, without us. You can see here Dad putting up the tent, playing the part of the middle class British tourist visiting a different part of the countryside. This week they saw Rochester castle (see pictures) and met relatives you would not normally relate to unless you had spent a lot of time resurching on the internet.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

UWA Warman Finals

I will be spending all this week working on my Warman project. I have designed a tankbot (robot tank) and even had a dream about it last night. This video shows the Western Australia finals. I will be running the same course on Monday. The winner goes to Sydney.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Third Levin

I went on a mission yesterday and got another car. It is a Toyota Corolla Levin, 1983. If you know me you know my other two cars are also called "Corolla Levin" but are all different shapes. Now I have a TE37, TE71 and AE86. Quite a Corolla collection. This one is a second hand import from Japan (probably the only one in the state), as we didn't get this shape in Australia. It is also the top spec model, the Levin Apex fully equiped with twincam EFI motor, disk brakes, LSD, sunroof, two-tone metalic paint, alloy wheels etc. Unfortunately this one is missing many parts and has so much rust you can see daylight through it. So I stowed it away up the back for another day. No time now.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Laser Skirmish


Yes we did have long range weapons, but sometimes you wait till you see the whites of their eyes. Lets just say the last time I was in this position it wasn't with a laser gun.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Howard and Rudd

Photo:ninemsn.com

Both John Howard and Kevin Rudd addressed australian churches tonight organised by the Australian Christian Lobby via a live webcast only shown in churches. To me it seamed like a historical moment, but maybe I am missing something.

John Howard talked with confidence and said God was neither Labour or Liberal. He mentioned the good Samaritan and Australian values and every humans intrinsic value. He pointed out the main problem with Africa was their governments, and aid could not have full effect untill this was sorted. He was not ashamed to say Australia has been shaped largely by judaeo christian beliefs, and that he wasn't going to deny his heritage in order to seam tolerant.

Kevin Rudd went a few steps further being (slighlty) more open about having a Christian faith. Both leaders only support man and women marriage, but Kevin Rudd would accept a relationship register that may include same sex couples. Mr Rudd pointed out differences he would make to current workplace rules so families could possiably plan to go to church on a sunday rather than work.

John Howard is a old favorite with me. He is sort of from the old school and has the confidence to go with his beliefs when it may not seam popular. But he has moved to modernise Australia with a more fluid ecconomy. Lets face it, who gets a prize for working with the same company for ten years these days?

Kevin Rudd is younger but has been described as being smug. Some Christians will get a tear in their eye thinking how Australia may soon have a Christian prime minister. But Mr Rudd pointed out we all make mistakes. I'm not sure it would make much difference. When you vote, also think about the other men behind these that you will be voting in also.