Thursday, 12/5/19 Improving the Grabber Arm

Date: Thursday, December 5th, 2019
Agenda: Get the Grabber working and tested
In Attendance: Coach Chad, Mentor Chris, Sean, Hayden, Tristan, Liam and Connie
Note Taker: Hayden
Tasks: Adjust programming to slow down arm and test
Reflection: We decreased the gear boxes on the new REV HD motors to increase the speed of the grabber arm swinging in to place. When turned on, the arm flings forward at a dangerous rate. We tested and tried to control the gearing and speed with programming and continual testing and eventually, the new motor started smoking. This may be because we kept grabbing the arm as we were testing to stop the rotation, but it may be an issue with the motor.
We tested the second motor off of the robot and it appears to react properly to the programming. We will switch out the HD Hex motors on the arm and resume testing.
We took measurements for our side walls and figure the western wall should be 9" long x 3.75" high and the eastern wall should be 13" wide x 11" tall.
According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. This was one of the conversations we had while building.
While we were testing the second REV HD motor on the arm, it also became hot and was overheating. We now believe there may be issues with our new motors and since we are at a critical point of building, we are deserting them right now until we have time to properly test them and determine if we need to return or exchange them.