As I'm sure you'll know, it's the holidays at the moment. However, as I said in the previous post, I've been ill, so I haven't been able to go out and do things and all that recreational lark. So, with plenty of free time, I've been doing lots more to my web shooter project. Here's what I've done in the past two days.
Yesterday, I got the motor and attempted to solder one of the wires back on (which I had accidentally pulled off a few months ago). I had quite a bit of trouble with this. For some reason, the tip of the soldering iron didn't seem to be working. The rest of it was, but the solder didn't melt when I touched it to the actual tip, which was annoying and therefore very awkward for me to use. However, I managed it in the end, and then as I was about to connect it to the battery, I accidentally tore off the other wire.
So I soldered that back together and then wired it all up.
Also, just as a point of interest, a soldering iron burns through a wooden table really well! And, if you're ever in doubt about whether the tip of the iron is working or not, don't touch it to check whether it's hot. Just don't.
Anyway, then I got the wheel I had cut from a cork and super glued it to the end of the motor I took from an R/C car (as you'll recall from an earlier post). Then I wired up the motor to a set of batteries, and lo and behold, it spun!
Then today, my mum got hold of another R/C car for me, which I painstakingly took apart (though it went much quicker this time because I actually knew which part I needed to get at, rather than just taking apart the entire thing like last time) and got the two motors from it. As before, there was the single, main motor at the back of the car which spun just the back wheels, and a smaller, weaker motor which steered the front two.
Also, as another point of interest, this time the electronics where quite a bit more complicated. There were considerably more parts on the circuit board, and there was even a tiny circuit board on the motor itself. I have no idea why, and I decided to just leave it on in case I damaged something important while trying to take it off.
I then put the R/C car back together again (though there were a number of pieces left over, but never mind). After I did that, I cut another wheel from a cork and glued that to the end of the new motor. Then I successfully managed to wire up that motor as well, so now I have them like this:
Yesterday, I got the motor and attempted to solder one of the wires back on (which I had accidentally pulled off a few months ago). I had quite a bit of trouble with this. For some reason, the tip of the soldering iron didn't seem to be working. The rest of it was, but the solder didn't melt when I touched it to the actual tip, which was annoying and therefore very awkward for me to use. However, I managed it in the end, and then as I was about to connect it to the battery, I accidentally tore off the other wire.
So I soldered that back together and then wired it all up.
Also, just as a point of interest, a soldering iron burns through a wooden table really well! And, if you're ever in doubt about whether the tip of the iron is working or not, don't touch it to check whether it's hot. Just don't.
Anyway, then I got the wheel I had cut from a cork and super glued it to the end of the motor I took from an R/C car (as you'll recall from an earlier post). Then I wired up the motor to a set of batteries, and lo and behold, it spun!
Then today, my mum got hold of another R/C car for me, which I painstakingly took apart (though it went much quicker this time because I actually knew which part I needed to get at, rather than just taking apart the entire thing like last time) and got the two motors from it. As before, there was the single, main motor at the back of the car which spun just the back wheels, and a smaller, weaker motor which steered the front two.
Also, as another point of interest, this time the electronics where quite a bit more complicated. There were considerably more parts on the circuit board, and there was even a tiny circuit board on the motor itself. I have no idea why, and I decided to just leave it on in case I damaged something important while trying to take it off.
I then put the R/C car back together again (though there were a number of pieces left over, but never mind). After I did that, I cut another wheel from a cork and glued that to the end of the new motor. Then I successfully managed to wire up that motor as well, so now I have them like this:
As you can see there, it's coming along nicely. I now need to build a stand that can hold up the two motors exactly where they need to be, and then I can try getting it to shoot things (I did a brief experiment with a pencil, which worked reasonably well).
This is shockingly speedy progress for me, so I'm very pleased.
This is shockingly speedy progress for me, so I'm very pleased.