Lesson 15

This lesson I had a terrible lesson! I tripped and dropped my car!! After mr Andrew had soldered all of the connections together! The batteries both came off and one wire came disconnected. Also on the right my axis broke. This meant I had to spend the whole lesson fixing my car. However I did get it done! So now my car is ready to race for next lesson!

Lesson 14

This lesson I wired up my car! I found it really hard and confusing but eventually got it connected correctly for the motor to work! There was two red wires, one grey wire a little blue wire and a little orange wire. Also a red wire connected to the battery and a black wire connected to the battery.the on the batteries I had the a red wire connected on each and on the left a grey one and orange short one which went across to the other battery these wires were then connected to the remote control. The black wire was connected to the grey and the red was connected to the little groove. Both the reds was also connected to each side and also another blue wire was connecting to the left and right grove. This all sounds very confusing but after a while of thinking and trying things I finally found the circuit that worked. I was very happy with my car that now I could push the buttons and it would move!!

Lesson 13

This lesson I did some soldering. Mr Andrews gave us a demonstration on how to use the soldering iron. What you have to do is wait for it to heat up and then on the very tip place the end of the wire from the ones we cut last week. Then a little bit of lead was put on the tip and it then melted onto the wire. This sealed the little wires together on the ends. I did this for every end of the wire. Later I went over to the wiring table and tried to figure out how to place the wires. I found this really difficult as there is so many wires. I connected one red wire. Then lastly I put a battery in to the holder so I could test if the wires were connected correctly. I will continue wiring next lesson as I ran out of time.

Lesson 12

This lesson I got through lots! First I glued on my battery holder on the remote control, this was a simple job. Then I glued on my two motors. I glued them do the copper but was facing upwards and they were close together but not touching. I also had to make sure that the little gear was touching the big gear so that when the motor turned the little gear would click onto the big gear and make it spin which would make the wheel spin. later I cut the wires. We had to cut two red wires and one grey. I made them each a side of a desk and a half long. I used the wire cutters to cut the wire of the bundle and did this for all. Then I had to strip the ends of the wire do that the rubber was cut of the ends so it was just wire. This will allow the electric flow to get through the wire easier as rubber is not a conductor. I used the orange wire strippers to strip the ends. This was simply done by lining up the wire in the little claw thing and pushing the two sides together, Like a stapler once all my wires were cut I put them all in my little plastic bag to keep safe for next lesson.

Lesson 11

This lesson I continued on glueing the wheels, axis and gears down. I had to fix up what I had done the lesson before. I also discovered that the other side on the gears it was to far in wards causing the wheel to rub against the edge which slowed it down. I then decided to remelt all the glue and rip of what I had done last lesson and start again on the other side, clean and fresh! I got the nozel of the heated glue gun and rubbed it on the hard glue. This melted it and was then easy to scrape of bits of it and finally rip everything off. I started again on the other side this time learning from my mistakes and doing it very carefully.however this time I but the blob of glue on the outside so the glue strips of glue didn't seep into the gear plate. This may sound confusing but I have drawn a diagram to help show what I am talking about. Overall I learnt from my mistakes and fixed the problem. A picture of the end glued down result is also attached!

Lesson 10

This lesson I glued the gear, axis and wheel onto the plastic body. First I lined up exactly were the wheel would go and then I was ready to glue! I heated up the glue gun and then it was ready. On the side closest to the wheel I put a blob of glue and then quickly stuck the axis down. On the other side I put strips of thyroid glue either side of the axis. This was a good way to do it because if I did to blobs of glue the glue might of dried and hardened by the time I put it down. I then repeated his process for the other side of the body. On the other sidei came across a bit of an issue. The glue and dripped into the gear plate and stick it down to the inside axis. This then made the wheel spin very slow. Time ran out so Mr Andrews said to leave it and fix it next time.

Lesson 9

This lesson I did lots! Firstly I hammered the axis into white plastic gear plate. This was quite difficult as the hoke was small and I had to stretch it to be able to get the axis through the hole. I placed the gear plate in the clamp and then with a hammer slowly hammering the axis in. At first it was just stretching and then the axis actually started to go through the hole and soon it was poking out the other side. I then repeated this process on the other side. Next I had to hammer the wheels onto the axis. This was easy as I just held the axis in the whole and hammered hard. I repeated this step for the wheel on the other side.

Lesson 8

This lesson we cut our axis out. The axis are the thin poles that allow the wheels to turn connected to the motor. First I cut the metal axis in half using pliers. I found this quite hard to cut but eventually it snapped. Next we cut the plastic axis in quarters. This was easier to cut. We then set them up. The plastic axis went two on each half metal axis. And one side was hammered into the hole in the wheel. This was done for both sides. 

Lesson 7

This lesson I worked on my remote control. I used the strip heater to bend the edges of the remote to create an economical hand held device. The acrylic plastic is a thermo plastic which means it can be re shaped when heated. I melted a strip about 4cm in. It was placed on the strip heater and only melted a little strip about .5cm which was just enough to make a bend at a right angle. I only had to wait around 1-2 minutes and it was ready to bend. After I bent it I ran it under cold water so the thermo plastic set back. I then repeated this step on the other side exactly the same. The thing I found difficult was bending the acrylic into a straight right angle. You only have one chance to move it correctly otherwise it will set. The first time I tried I didn't bend the bit down enough and it was not straight. Because you can re heat as many times I just reheated it and tried again. I got it perfectly the second time I tried. The next step was to put on the buttons. I put the main button piece through the bottom of the hole. Then I screwed on a washer to keep it in place. The remote control was then complete!

Lesson 6

This lesson we got our mechanical parts for our cars. And placed them were they have to go. Mr Andrews talked to us about each piece and what it was used for. We didn't have much time this lesson though because of the assembly in the morning.

Lesson 5

This lesson we learnt how to use a roater. We then used it to grout a line out. I found it quite easy to control even though I was quite scared About using it. For the rest of the lesson I worked on my reflections.

Lesson 4

This lesson we learnt how to use a dremol tool. Mr Andrews gave us a demonstration. This was just experimenting to see if it was useful in our projects. However it was not needed.

Lesson 3

This lesson in the workshop we did many things to perfect the shape of our cars. First I sanded the edges using the sand belt. I found this quite hard to get it in a smooth line. After I used the drill press to drill holes in the spots were the wired go through. I held the shape in line while my friend used the wheel to slowly bring the drill down through the acrylic. Finally I used the hand drill to drill holes for the controller buttons on the controller. The lesson was great as I got a lot done.

Lesson 2

This lesson we traced the basic shape of our car and controller using a template. After Mr Andrews cut my shapes using a jigsaw.

Lesson 1

The lesson in the workshop we picked the colour of the acrylic we wanted to make our car out of. I picked black for both. Acrylic is a thermodynamic plastic which means it can be melted to be reshaped.

Remote control system

A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.