I've been reading through the manual to troubleshoot why the starter switch might be causing the relay to go nuts. The ZX600RC1 manual referred to a Base Manual for going through the starter motor removal in detail (which thankfully was updated on this forum 12 days ago).
After reading through the base manual, I found some possible scenarios which may be causing the symptoms it's having. A winding on the starter motor might be open (having infinite resistance) which would make it very difficult for the current to make the starter motor turn. Also, if there's a short between the commutator and the shaft, that would indicate that the armature has a short and would cause weird things to happen to the starter circuit relay. (The starter circuit relay is different than the starter relay, because it's behind the starter lockout switch. The starter lockout switch ensures that the vehicle is in neutral and the clutch is engaged - the clutch handle is out - in order to prevent the bike from being started in gear. The starter relay is what directly controls current to the starter motor).
After the Electric Orbit Wheels and the extremely fun nights/early mornings in the Stata Parking Garage with Ben'sTrike, I started thinking about a bigger, faster electric vehicle. The Electric Orbit Wheels are great for short commutes around MIT, but not for midnight garaging.
I started playing with the idea of returning to my childhood and making a small motorcycle (not a pocket bike, but a small motorcycle similar to Mars's). (I also wanted to make my own Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) to help with drag racing in the garage.) I've actually been riding motorcycles for most of my life, I've just never taken one apart or built my own. It's time for that to change.
As part of my Undergraduate Research Opportunity (UROP) at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, I took apart an air pressure gauge and added a servo to remotely move the needle. I hacked the parts used in the air pressure gauge to make a four-bar-linkage with a servo I crufted from the remains of Charles' 2.00GoKart class. I'm not sure if I can reveal the intentions of doing this for secrecy of the CSAIL project, so I better be safe and not mention it.
Inspired by Ben's PocketBoard, I decided to make a small skateboard in order to scavenge free food faster. It all started when my roommate crufted an old skateboard from his fraternity. I went on Ebay and found some awesome glow-in-the-dark 70x51 mm skateboard wheels. I wanted to make the deck such that I could maximize the visibility of the wheels. I recently learned how to MIG and TIG weld (thanks to Mars) and after finding some steel rings in MITERS' scrap metal I decided to practice my welding technique (before welding together my future electric motorcycle). I made a wire-frame deck with supporting steel rods underneath and the negative piece of a water jetted steel wrench for the truck plates.
I found a really nice piece of plywood on hall, and my closet was overflowing with closet stuff and cruft. So I decided to make shelf exclusively for crufty things. Also, since I have a loft, I have a bunch of places to attach things. Therefore, I can make the most efficient use of the space in my small room (it is actually the smallest room on hall and the only "double").
The sink had a terrible drain ever since my roommate was assigned the room (partly the reason we chose the other single to move into and build a double loft). It also didn't look very aesthetically pleasing, especially for something that spits out "clean" water. These unpleasant traits weren't enough for me to fix the sink before, because we turned the room into a guest room (used primarily for sleeping). However, when I knew my Mom was going to use the guest room during Spring Break, I had more of an incentive to fix it.
STATUS:
Faucet leaks around the side when running
Sink basin is full of dirt and gunk
Does not drain properly (water sits in the sink for hours)
Not usable
This project was mainly inspired by Raku (and the fact that I found a perfectly sized steel tube in the MITERS stock pile). Though getting more exercise has been a thought of mine for a while. During robot season in High School, I wouldn't really play sports or exercise on a daily bases. Now at MIT, it's constantly "robot season" with MITERS and all. Having access to a convenient pull-up bar may help with my lack of exercise (Broomball helps a bit too :).
When Raku, my roomate, and I opened the door to our room, it was plain white. White is boring. So we bought some "Mango Orange" paint from Dickson Brothers and True Value (we bought a small tester then a big gallon). Both of those hardware stores are near the MIT/Harvard Square area. I found some Gaffer Tape around the Edgerton Center, and Ed Moriarty, a truly awesome and inspiring person who works at MIT's Edgerton Center, found some paper I could use for preventing paint blobs. We then proceeded to tape all the places we didn't want to get orange paint on. (I really wish I had pictures of this process. That was back when I wasn't a blogger).
So, I need to back up a second. Raku and I signed up to be roommates, but we were assigned two different singles. During Rush, we had heard the idea that two people moved into one room and then turned the second room into a movie theater/building/everything/awesome room. Raku and I decided to do something similar. We planned to paint one room orange, the other blue, and then put portals on the doors.
We slept in our other single while we were in the process of painting. We basically went the first month at MIT without completely unpacking our suitcases.
After putting two coats of paint on, it turned out really nice.
Loft
We both wanted to build a loft. We managed to scrap some nice 2x4 and 4x4 boards by helping disassemble the fun rides in East Campus's courtyard. Every Rush and CPW, East Campus builds awesome contraptions (like roller coasters and ride-able double pendulums).
(Skipping all the design process) Here's the final product. If you want to read about the rest, click the read more link below the image.
In my senior year of High School, I took a class on Engineering Design and Development (EDD) with Project Lead The Way (I think it's funny that their acronym has more syllables than their name). In the class, we went through the ten steps of design and development to ensure that our product met its design specifications in the time allotted and had a market for the problem it solved.
Mr. Ehnert, Lathrop High School's engineering department Instructor and LHS FIRST Robotics club Coach, has 15 FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams that he takes to the Alaska State tournament every year. (That's a lot of nuts and bolts).
I decided to make a project that I could leave with Lathrop as a sort of "going away" present for Mr. Ehnert. That's when the idea of a "Magic Sorter" was born. The purpose of this Tetrix Nut/Bolt Sorter was to decrease the amount of time spent on sorting robot parts. By doing so, it would also increase the time for productive robot building. In the class, I made 3D printed and laser cut models to solve the sorting problem and complete it's purpose. However, the "Magic Sorter" didn't work as well as I envisioned. So, I worked on improving it over the summer.
I started playing around with mechanisms in my Lego box. And, well I decided to build the whole thing out of Legos. I didn't have a "blog" back then, and I didn't take any pictures. The pictures below are from when I came back during Winter Break after my first semester at MIT.
"Magic Sorter"
Hopper and Laser Sorting Section
Here's the Tetrix Sorter in action! I took a bunch of short clips when I came home for Winter Break. I finally got around to compiling them into a "pretty" video. Enjoy!
That last clip is at a weird angle. I wish I could take a better video to get the whole thing functioning, but I'm currently about 5238 kilometers away from it (thanks to Wolfram for that statistic).
