Desk Racers - Seven

Last building session.  Next week we have the race over the noon hour, then kids can take the machines to science classes in the afternoon if they wish.  Pizza and dismantling for our last class. I'm glad we had the extra session for this, usually these projects end up piled in my garage for my much later attention.

Racer B with some cool running lights:

The main power is 24 volts but these are 12 volt LEDs for automotive use.  The answer is using a voltage regulator.  The kids had fun with that.  It looks like the Hollywood idea of a nuclear bomb trigger!

Racer C.  Well, we learn from our successes.  We learn more from ambitious failure:

As I feared it did not have enough torque to run efficiently.  Also the long wheel base made turning problematic.  As in impossible.  I will spare myself the embarrassment of posting a picture of the place where I ran it into a wall and knocked off a bit of baseboard.

None of the makeshift fixes we tried worked.  Just too much weight and not enough power for the task at hand.  At least it looked cool.

Final touch of course was an Axman Surplus sticker for each machine.  Race day next week. Only two machines per heat but that should be fun enough.  I guess.

It should be fun.  I think maybe the desks will go back into the storage area they came from.  I could see reviving this project in a few years.  The nice thing about middle school robotics is that the kids are only there for three years, you can have a "rotation" of projects and not have kids repeating a build.