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This page NEW on January 25th, 2003 Welcome to Dave's Project Corner, featuring custom projects that have been designed and built from scratch. __________________________________________________________________________ I started this project quite a while ago, and hope to get back and finish it soon. Perhaps when Cam is old enough to help out. Weight: ~4 lbs Radio: 3-channel PCM (minimum) for throttle, rudder, lift control Lift Fan: tri-blade prop driven by an O.S. CZ-12 nitromethane-powered two-stroke engine with electric starter Thrust Fan: dual-blade prop driven by an O.S. CZ-12 nitromethane-powered engine with pull starter The hull pieces were designed using AutoCAD. All pieces fit together in a tab-in-slot method, and are then bonded. The skirt is made from a bicycle inner tube. The design is modular, with lift and propulsion units acting more-or-less as removable, self-contained units:
Though not apparent, this is the first hover test! With the lift fan spinning at 18,000 rpm, the craft floats 0.2" above the ground on a cushion of air.
Here the hull is complete and all wood surfaces have been painted with fuel-proof, heat-proof dope paint.
What's left? Many linkages, engine mount for thrust fan, fan guard, and many other small things.
_________________________________________________________________________ In 1997, Mark L. and I decided that the annual Stanford ME218 SmartProducts autonomous robot competition needed an alumni entry. Most teams had 4, but we figured it could be done with 2 experienced mechatronics designers...oops, what a lot of time spent... Unlike Robot Wars and Battlebots and such, these robots are designed to play a game WITH NO interaction or control from the outside...the 'bot is completely on its own during the 3-minute game. The gist of the game was to pickup and then deliver 5 ping-pong balls, one-at-a-time. The robot had to find its own ping-pong dispenser by homing in on an infrared beacon that was pulsing at a particular frequency. It then had to drive to the dispenser, line up precisely with lines at that corner of the playing field, signal the dispenser to drop a ball, catch the ball, then carry it to a hopper (flashing at another frequency), and drop the ball in. In addition, the robot was required to stay within the hexagonal playing field and not cross the black-tape boundaries. Also, robots were required to detect collisions (with the opponent's robot), back up, and head off in a different direction. Our design included 360-degree vision capability without having to spin (via 17 infrared detectors on top), 8 sensors looking for the black-tape boundaries, front & back bumpers with the ability to detect what direction the collision occurred from, and a Motorola HC11 single-board computer for brains. Most importantly, we had Aquatred tires and trick rims ; )
__________________________________________________________________________ Most of you know (or suspect) that I'm a complete flashlight nut. So no surprise that I 'just HAD to' design and build my own in 1995 at the Stanford machine shop. It only took about 40-50 hours of labor...hey, I was just learning how to use the mill & lathe ;) Specifications: light source: 10-watt xenon bulb materials: delrin (acetal), polycarbonate, aluminum power: external 12-volt features: focusing adjustment, converts to area lamp, signal (momentary) button, low-battery indicator
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