User:Ablomme2125

=Week 1 Projects= HoverCraft/Howard Community College/Fall2011/501 Glorious

Problem Statement
Can the game of poppit be fully completed, such as all the balloons be popped without using the helpful tools they have to eliminate balloons.

Website
The poppit game can be accessed through google chrome (not firefox) http://poppit.pogo.com/hd/PoppitHD.html

Recordings and Results
What i tried to do was go through 10 games, and each one see how many of the different colored balloons there were and document all of the results. The reason for this is because i wanted to see if they randomly placed the same amount of balloons in different places, or if there were different amounts of each. I found that it was set up kind of like a grid 10x15 balloons equaling 150 balloons total. But it turned out that the game was not putting out the same amount of balloons for each color, and there are 5 colors, so that should be 30 balloons of each color. But from my testing i found that that wasnt so, the reds would seem to have more out than any other color, and then another game would start and yellow would have the most. So with the odds it seems almost impossible to beat the game because you have to eliminate all the colors that had less balloons so you had the same color left over in the end.

Conclusion
It turns out that the method that i found to be successful was the chunking method, but not just selecting the colors that were chunked together, i would start from the bottom and work my way up to the top. The reason i chose this method is because i found that when you started from the bottom you could easily predict what your second move would be and almost every game i got down to 7 or so balloons which without using the power ups or the other tools is pretty good.

=Week 2 Hovercraft Project=

Problem Statement
Can i have a hovercraft that is able to be remote controlled? If so how would it be done and what would i use?

Doing
Started first initial design concept. Found a flaw in the design upon completion of the design. The way i had the turning mechanism on the hovercraft would not cause it to turn. The way i had it set up is i was going to have it so when you turn it would pivot, the propulsion motors on the back, up or down. I then realized that it would be much simpler if i could just adjust the amount of current going to each motor that way one would be pushing more than the other, causing it to move forward and turn.

Analysis
The base design was fine, concerning the motor and fan placement, but the way i had the drive motors, it would not work the way i want it to. So im going to have to change the design and come up with a way to adjust the current going to each motor. =Week 3 Hovercraft Project=

Going to Do
Design New Concept for Hovercraft 9/19/2011, 11:09 am

Doing
Creating and sketching up new schematics for the hovercraft. Using a foam product for the base seems to have the best effect because its light enough and durable to the point that the turbines that are pushing the air down, do not have to do much work to make it hover. Meaning more battery life and able to go longer. I would like to use some type of rubber tubing to skirt the underside of the foam with, that way it creates a better sealing surface so the air can exit more uniformly. Allowing the air to be disbursed evenly underneath the hovercraft. I am also in the process of testing which fan would be used for the propulsion and the lift. I found that the turbines create more lift than the conventional computer fans, because when the pressure builds up beneath the craft it wants to escape through the closest hole, and if its just a fan blade it will just seep up through that. But with the turbine it eliminates that problem by having the intake on the side as opposed to the top.

Problems
Making the hovercraft remote control, or creating a device to communicate with the arduino using either bluetooth or RF signals. And also which one would work the best for this application? Whats the range on and RF transmitter versus a bluetooth transmitter? Can i take apart an old transmitter and receiver off a remote control car and put it on the hovercraft?

Analysis
Overall the new design seems to be great, found that the turbine works better for the lift of the craft than the computer fans. Also with the foam platform it makes it much easier for the hovercraft to receive lift. Sign out: 12:53pm 09/19/2011 http://html.alldatasheet.net/html-pdf/141218/PERICOM/PT8A9781DE/600/2/PT8A9781DE.html