9/29 Meeting

Everyone showed up but Ashleigh and Tyler. We have decided on the exact light sensors that we are going to use and we have already ordered them. We have decided to use an ultrasonic sensor. We have also decided to set up the fans in a "reverse helicopter" set-up, where the thrust fan is in the fan, and the fan that turns the hovercraft is in the front. We have decided on the exact counter-rotating fan. We are preparing to buy the rip-stop nylon and the styrofoam. We have narrowed down the type of fans. We are currently looking for the right motor for the button pusher.

9/20 Meeting

Amanda, Juan, and Brian did not show up. Aaron was sick but on skype. At this meeting we looked at the excel spread sheet Ashleigh wrote to calculate our fan requirements and pointed out improvements that needed to be made by the next meeting. We also decided on the shape for our hovercraft (bullet shaped with a trapezoidal head). We also drafted possible dimensions for our hovercraft and discussed concepts for gate activation and sensors.

9/23 Mangers Meeting

All four managers were present to the meeting with Dylan and the one in the eveing.
We met with Dylan to do a dry run of the presentation and see what we needed to change.
After meeting with Dylan this afternoon, we (the four managers) met to revise, edit and finalize the presentation and what we were going to say.

9/22 Meeting

Nine members were there. Only Ashleigh and Randy were not there.
We finished piecing together the presentation. We handed out assignments from now until the next meeting and what we need to do before the next milestone. We decided how we are going to buy the items. We came up with our team name: B.E.D.S.
Brilliant Engineers Designing Stuff.

9/21 meeting

Nine members were present at the meeting. Amanda and Juan were not at the meeting.
We finished the Gantt Chart and the calculators and revised and edited slides. We started piecing together the different sections' slides into one presentation. We started looking at componets and their prices.

NXT Specs

http://mindstorms.lego.com/Overview/NXTreme.aspx

Look at the hardware sdk. It has alot of the technical specs which will be useful later on when designing circuits. One thing I saw is that the NXT has PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) so we can actually control the speed our fan runs at. So when looking for propulsion fan you might want to look at fans with the ability to control the speed with PWM (4pin PC fans will have this feature). Since we want our fans to go slow before the switch this is a simple way to control the speed of the propulsion fan with out having to go buy a speed controller.

Gantt Chart

http://cid-d96a3537009b238a.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/ENES100Hovercraft.pdf

Gantt Chart. Please tell me if any changes need to be made.

Gantt Chart for A2 paper.
http://cid-d96a3537009b238a.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/ENES100HovercraftA2.pdf

Presentation Plan of Attack

Here is what I believe should be happening over the next few days leading up to our first presentation:

Sunday - be prepared with material that can be used as the content of the powerpoint (including graphics), decide within subgroups what stays and what goes, collaborate as a group and make presentation cohesive

Tuesday - Powerpoint is ready, at a point where it can be tweaked but also practiced

Wednesday - Present to Kevin and/or Dylan, rehearse taking into consideration any feedback

Thursday - Make a flawless presentation!

Meeting 9/15

All eleven members including myself showed up for our second meeting. We confirmed the structure of the group as Aaron Hoffman as Project Manager, Max Hill as Power and Propulsion manager , Michael Powers as sensors and codes manger, Tyler Burrage as Structure and Levitation Manager. Structure and Levitation is in charge for making the excel calculator and are almost done with it. We have started working on the presentation and have decided that the Project Manager and the Group Managers will speak. We have had good inter-group work and conversation. All suggestions are being considered. Right now we are looking at a hovercraft with a soft skirt and a base made of either light wood or styrofoam. The levitaton fan will be wired directly to the battery/batteries. We don't know if we will have 1 or 2 propulsion fans. One of the output signals will be used to hit the button to open the gate. Looks like we will be using infared sensors to track the black lines. We are planning on meeting again tomorrow 9/17.

Power and Propulsion 9/15/09

All three members were present. We discussed the pros and cons of axial fans vs. propellors. Although they may be more difficult to mount and install mesh around, propellors were successful on previous hovercrafts. They also produce more thrust. We are leaning towards propellors over axial fans at the moment. Axial fans have a high flowrate and are easier to mount but we realize that winning doesn't necissarily mean picking waht is easy.....nor does it mean making things more complicated than they have to be.

Another design aspect discussed was the way our hovercraft would steer. One option considered was dual fans mounted on the left and right for tank-style steering. This option may provide quicker steering, but at the same time may be hard to balance and keep in a straight line. Another option considered was a single fan which can be manipulated by a servo. This way makes for easier straight-line motion (only one fan/speed to worry about) but could also be heavier and harder to mount. The steering might also be slower, but we will decide later whether sharp or gradual steering is desireable. Either way is plausible as the NXT has 3 outputs, but we were assured by the sensor and controls team that the latter option would be significantly harder to code and that is something we msut consider.

Reminder

Don't forget meeting tomorrow at 7.

Tuesday's Meeting

These people showed up to the meeting: Aaron Hoffman, Max Hill, Randy Liu, David Kirk, and Juan Quintero-Moreno.
We set up this blog as our journal. We set up a facebook group. We are making sure everyone has a google account so that we can use google docs to share. We are making sure everyone will show at the next meeting with ideas. We also set up a temporary hiearchy with Aaron Hoffman as the Product Manager and the other people who came to the meeting as the section managers. We started thinking about supplies and about potential sponsers to fund the project.
Randy Liu set up the Facebook group and this blog.
Everyone else contributed to what was said above.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting is Tuesday, September 15 at 7 pm. We will meet outside the McKeldin Library next to Testudo.

Welcome

This is where we will be keeping our journals for the ENES100 hovercraft project. Please check this site and our facebook group for announcements for our meetings.