MASSIVE-ANT: Secure Bottom, More Mounting Ideas, Mount Motors

Tuesday 3/24

Matt drilled holes in the shelf to secure it to the side rails. He did this so the bottom wasn't held in place by just friction from the side rails. He first decided on where to drill them so it would strong. He put one at each end on each side rail; he then drilled another hole a few inches from the end hole on each side/rail. Patrick helped Matt hold the side rails and shelf while he marked the places he needed to drill and while he drilled.

Mike showed up late. After Matt had to leave to go to lab, Mike and I, Patrick, came up with more ideas to mount the motors. These included mounting the motors directly to the inside part of the side rails and/or mounting them to the bottom. Mounting them to the side rails (inside part) created an issue: the shafts on the cogs and motors were too short to reach beyond the side rails and shelf. This issue also was present of we mounted the motors to brackets on the shelf. To fix this, we made the mounting brackets flush with the outer edge of the side rails. The shafts were long enough to reach beyond the side rails. Doing this though, created a new issue that no one foresaw. Once the mounting bracket holes were drilled, we realized we couldn't put the nuts on the screws as there was no room. We tried the GearsEd and Vex screws/nuts and neither worked. Another issue we found, was the screws/nuts to secure the shelf were close to the screws for the motor mounts.