Week 1: The idea

Not me.

  

So... Week 1. The genius project has begun.
After lots and lots of brainstorming, I realized very quickly that I had next to no ideas. This year, I've been very busy, and honestly haven't had much time for hobbies. Which made it a little difficult to figure out where my passions lie. There were a couple things that I did come up with, along with the reasons that I didn't choose them:
Basketball: As much as I love watching and playing basketball, there isn't much I could do in 7 weeks. It would be AWESOME if I could dunk. But I probably couldn't do that in 7 years, let alone 7 weeks. Maybe if I grew 7 inches. But I'm not Lebron James.




Call of Duty: I have 15 days played in COD: BO. That's 15 days of my life... I should probably try to avoid that for the future. While its plenty of fun to sit unmoving on a couch for 8 hours, shouting at people over the internet, its not very productive. Plus I'm terrible at it. (.75 KD Awwww yeah)

This is not what I like to dream about.

Left 4 dead: For the same reasons as COD, I probably shouldn't be playing that much more L4D, or any other video game for that matter. Plus I now imagine zombies hiding behind every single corner in my house, and have trouble sleeping (well that was already an issue). But yeah. I also enjoy having my computer, and if my mom confiscated it I think I would just go into a coma and die.



Cello: HA NO!

Building random stuff (and I mean RANDOM): This is very focused and specific! It's extremely clear what direction I should take from here!
As a kid I loved playing with Legos. That's what I had instead of friends. Little lego people. I talked to them. And they talked back... ok not really. But that would make for an interesting novel. Anyways, as I got older, my love of building continued. Whether it be building balsa wood towers for Odyssey of the Mind, rubber band airplanes for Science Olympiad (If you're reading this Mayank... 2 second flight time!), or spaghetti bridges in 8th grade gifted, I love to see something that I've made. Something that I can call my own. So maybe I should build... something.
Programming: Meh. Programming is interesting, its fun, and I enjoy working out problems. But after 3 hours of work, if my error turns out to be a misplaced semicolon, I think I might throw my laptop at the wall. And as I've said, if I lost my computer, "I think I would just go into a coma and die" (1).

172800 seconds of my time. Ain't nobody got time for that!

So then what to do?
Looking back at the things that I enjoyed doing (basketball, video games, building stuff) I realized they had one thing in common. I was always working with other people.
So when someone asked me if I wanted to build a quadrotor (which is basically like a real life flying game), I had to say yes.
That's how I decided that I was going to build a quadcopter with Pratik.

Now then... what are we going to do?
For the next 5-6 weeks, my life will simply be studying and working on quadcopters.
As of February 23, I will be done with debate, mock trial, Robotics build season, region orchestra, and I'm sure there something else I've forgotten. Which means that now I have like... an hour a day that I can work on this quadcopter! Which means that the next 5-6 weeks should be a breeze. Right?
Nope.

Goals:
Week 1: Finish designing the basic framework of the quadcopter. Compile lists of necessary supplies. Begin research.
Making something fly is not as easy as it sounds. Well... anything beyond a paper airplane. It requires a lot of work, and a solid design. A poorly designed aircraft is never going to fly.
Week 2: Create a CAD model
This is going to be loads of fun. Neither Pratik nor I can CAD much more than a square (or a circle :o). Essentially, we'll have to teach ourselves. Fast.
Week 3: Begin construction
By the third week we will hopefully have begun our construction, based off of the model. As of yet, there is only one detail we're clear on: "it" will have 4 propellers. I sure hope we'll be a bit more clear before then.
Week 4: Continue building and begin programming
We also have to teach ourselves object oriented C++ variants. Which basically means, teaching ourselves how to program the quadcopter. We will also continue construction.
Week 5: Complete construction, begin electrical components, finish programming.
Ideally, we will be done building the actual quadcopter, and have a working program that allows it to fly. We will, once the quadrotor is complete, begin wiring and installing the motors, processors, etc.
Week 6: Test, debug
Obviously, a project with so many dynamic components is going to require a lot of follow-up. We will have an entire week dedicated to fixing errors and making sure that the quadcopter doesn't explode. That would make me very sad.

I made you a quadcopter, but I exploded it

We're going to need lots of $$$ too. This isn't a cheap project. There is a very long and confusing list of supplies, which I would prefer not to post. But essentially, the things we need fall into 3 categories: First is just raw resources. We will require things like ply wood, extruded aluminum, and 18 gauge copper wiring. On the operations side, we will need logic boards, processors, speed controllers, accelerometers, etc. And finally the fun stuff: propellers, motors, chain, and gears. It's a rather messy heap of materials, and hopefully we can make something that looks roughly like a quadcopter by the end.


Hopefully by the end of the 6 weeks, we will have a beautiful work of engineering that can fly, and ... yeah just fly. But it will fly fantastically! To construct a fully functional flying feat of fengineering (had to continue the alliteration) would be an achievement beyond my wildest dreams. (Because my dreams are all about zombies chasing me, remember?)
If we don't succeed, I will have wasted 20% of my time for 6 weeks, spent $150+
Let's hope we succeed.