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So it's the weekend before the end of 2001. I start fiddling with a few
pieces of Technic on a Friday night, trying to wrap my mind around a good
grabbing mechanism (whilst playing EverQuest, of course ;) )
Come up with a tentative design before I went to bed... and didn't get up
until the next morning when I got a phone call from a friend.
He said, 'Kid, you plannin' on coming down for a coffee?'
I said I was and proceeded on towards the local Tim Hortons where my friends
were all waiting. Amongst talking about EQ and stuff, I showed them my
preliminary (like 6 whole pieces) block grabber. We tossed around a few
ideas and I proceeded on home to revamp, rebuild, redo, and remend my
grabbing mechanism.
(for my idea was to start with how I was going to pick up *a* block--just
picking it up is most of the battle... the x/y axis would just follow
naturally, after I make the Z work properly (and I know, Iain, that Y is
suppose to be 'up' from the page, but I'm a 2 dimensional thinker where x
and y are only used, so when another letter gets added, it's z and means
'up' from the page ;) ))
After I was mostly confident that I could pick up a block, I proceeded to
develop the y axis...
that went far too smoothly.
It was when I started to develop the x axis when I ran into problems...
The z axis and claw, combined with the y axis, provbed to be somewhat bulky
so to get it to move along an x axis (right on the baseplate) I had to set
up gear trains on both sides! Eek!!
So with tears in my eyes, I proceeded on adding rack and pinion to both
sides of the playing board and had to span the playfield with an elongated axle.
Not pretty but functional.
By Sunday night I had a (mostly) functioning 'bot that could pick up a block
from anywhere on the field and deliver it to anywhere else on the field.
This was how I spent the last weekend of 2001 (well, besides taking time off
and playing EQ :) )
I want to have it up on my 'site connected up along with the WebCam so you
can do your own block moving. I'll see if I have time.
Beyond that, the reson for the slight rush for me is that in a week or 2,
all my LEGO (sans Technic and Train) are being packed up and shipped to the
local Christian elementary school to be used by the grade 3 class for 4-5
weeks. They asked, I said sure--what did I get myself in to? No LEGO for a
month? especially during the 2 rtl events??? Ah, whatreya gonna do?
Anywho, stay safe and take care
Dave
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