Bufbotics: Meeting Minutes 21-May-2005

Topics:

Solar Roller Track Construction
- Working in Kevin's woodshop, we built a solar roller track.
- 1 Meter in length, plus start and finish zones.
- 2 500-watt halogen lamps positioned 50cm above the track surface.
- Shorting bar at the start line to ensure a fair start.
- Lots of tools - pipe cutters, bench grinder, chop saw, pneumatic nail guns.
Solarbotics Kit Demo
- Ethan brought a completed Solarbotics Solar Speeder.
- Slightly modified kit to allow interchangeable capacitors.
- Using the default cap, took about 2 minutes to charge, and then ran into the wall :-(
- With a 1000uF cap, the motor runs about 3 times a second with no load, but doesn't move the robot when placed down on the surface.
- 4700uF cap had a longer charge time, but similarly did not have enough torque to move the robot.
Wright Hobbies Kit Demo
- Ethan brought a mostly assembled Wright Hobbies solar roller kit.
- Several members had seen the 3D instructions at Wright Hobbies for freeforming the circuit.
- Demonstrated using a DMM for measuring the charge across the cap to verify that it's increasing.
Discussion - Wright Hobbies sponsorship
- Wright Hobbies is interested in sponsoring club events.
- They've sent a demo Solar Roller kit that's a prototype for the Bufbotics Special Edition kit.
Discussion - Field Trip to Robot Riot in Toronto
- Robot Riot at the Ontario Science Center
- Event held 28 & 29 of May
- Bufbotics fieldtrip on May 29th
- All interested should contact Ethan via the group email list.
Discussion - Future Bufbotics Meeting Schedule
- We will have a standing meeting schedule, on the 2nd saturday of every other month.
- Next meeting will be 9-July-2005.
- At each meeting we'll try to arrange a location for the next meeting.
Solar Roller Competition Discussion
- The solar roller competition will be at the next meeting, 9-July-2005.
- The rules will follow the ECRG 2003 rules