Week 1/12 - 1/16

With the completion of the steam engine last week I go back to work trying to fix the RC R2D2. On Monday, I started by trying to just run a test code to make sure the wi-fi modules I was using were working correctly. Towards the end of the day I was trying to install the libraries for the wi-fi module Arduino crashed so I ended it there.

Then on Tuesday, my classmate Tim asked me to help him make a part on the mill to potentially fix the problem of a failed resin print. Another one of my classmates is making a keyboard and when resin printing the part of the keycaps that attaches to the keyboard didn't print correctly. The idea was to make a plus shape that could then be heated up and would melt the correct shape in the keycaps.

Considering how small the part was the manufacturing of it went fairly well and turned out pretty much how we wanted it. Unfortunately, after trying many different ways of heating up the part to press into the keycaps it wouldn't work. Tim and I tried many solution but the resin just kept breaking apart instead of melting the correct way. In the end we essentially made a terrible screwdriver that won't do anything but it was still an interesting thing to do with it being so small.

On Wednesday I got back to working with the wi-fi modules. I got all the libraries to download but even still the modules didn't want to connect to each other. I tried many different troubleshooting solutions but none of them seemed to work.

My teacher suggested going to another one of the students, Adam, in the shop that had made an RC vehicle and asking for their input. He suggested instead using these radio receivers that he found much easier to use. I found a simple code online that I could use to test them out and started plugging them into the Metro Mini but haven't finished quite yet. Hopefully if these work I'll finally be able to start working on PCB design and will be one step closer to a final product.