Ideation

In class today I designed the first cart that I am going to make. The body is going to be made of coreflute, so it will be very thin and light. The motor is going to be placed under the body to make it more aerodynamic. The batteries will be placed near the back of the car to keep the weight centralised slightly in front of the back wheels. A scale drawing of the design can be seen below.

I am thinking about making a later design for my cart using ProDesktop, because then I can get the measurements more exact and the materials will be lighter. I would be able to extrude two holes through the body for the metal pole that the wheels are on, and this would be perfectly straight. I am not sure of what design I would use for this yet, or if I will even have time, but I would like to be able to at least try it.

Theory Lessons - Things to keep in mind

Design tips:
-Lubricant on copper wire at the front and back of the cart, as well as on the metal that the wheels are attached to.
-Weight centralised just in front of the wheels
-Piece of plastic in front to divert the air more smoothly, making the cart more aerodynamic
-Make the cart as light as possible, but not so light that it would flip.
-Thinner body of cart is faster -By changing the positions of the large and small cogs, the cart can either have fast acceleration with a slower top speed or slow acceleration with a very fast top speed.
-Taking the outer layer as well as the silver piece of the wheel helps.
-Higher quality batteries can help slightly

Torch Completion

I have just finished making my torch and am quite pleased with how it turned out. I brought a laptop home tonight and was fiddling with the program, changing little things in the design until I was satisfied. I made each part of the torch several times, each with a small detail changed in it until I decided on the one that I liked the best. For instance, in the barrel of the torch, I made it with the helixes both extruded subtracting material and adding material, and also played with the diameter of each helix. I did similar things with the other parts, but in the end decided to keep them fairly simple because the barrel was already rather complex. With the top cap, I changed it slightly from my original design, adding a small lip at the top to form a small amount of protection around the glass that would cover the reflector.

I am going to try to take home a laptop again on Thursday or over the weekend so that I can make any final adjustments to my design, make the engineering drawing and print out all of the components. I am also planning on beginning work on the written component tomorrow. I have planned out in my head what I want to include in all the different aspects of it, so hopefully it won't take too long.

Also, I am very excited for our next unit of work! I have been looking forward to it ever since it was first mentioned. I have a very competitive nature, and due to this I will probably put a lot more effort into the task than is necessary, but will certainly have a lot of fun while doing it. I am aiming to be able to beat Mr Ward's time, even though I know it is fairly unlikely.