Round 3

The new and improved prototype went together pretty well—one little snafu with my lasercut file but it was easily solved. In the future I vow to print my CAD files out on paper and cut them out and see how they go together before I commit to cutting plex. It was kind of a shame to have to slice the finger joints that did not join.

Assembly was kind of a pain as it was hard to keep the cables tensioned into the wheels while attaching the wheels to the servo motors. I should have taken this as a bad sign for once the unit was together, I had a lot of problems with the cables staying in the track, and also snaking out of the bottom side of the wheel.

On this prototype I used a hard plastic tube as the cable housing (it creates the 90° transition.) I had suspected that the rubber tubing was too flexible and may have been causing the problems with the cable wrapping on the wheel, and the backside snaking. However this new material was hardly the solution as I continue to have the same issues, in addition to excess noise. I much prefer the quieter rubber tubing, and am planning to return to it for the final project.