Almost there!

So much progress in the last few days. I finally built my project boxes, which took a little trial and error and a refresher in the wood shop. On one side of the box, the proximity sensor is mounted with a hole that allows the wires to feed into the inside of the box. On the top surface of the box, there is a rectangular cutout in which the motor fits into, with the wires also trailing down into the box. I screwed the holes on one side of the motor to the project box itself for extra security. The next step was finding something larger to attach the ropes to. I cut up a 1 and 1/4" dowel and screwed that to the motor attachment with the two wings. Here's a picture of the setup:


Everything is fully functional as of now, however, there are a few snags that still need to be worked out.

First off, when the dowels rotate, the string that is attached to it gravitates toward the bottom as it spins, which means that it gets slightly tangled. I need to find some sort of material that I can attach to the bottom to prevent it from snagging around the motor itself, and make it more like a spool.

The other major problem is that the boxes need to be secured to something so that they don't get dragged and fall over when the motors are pulling too hard. My proposed solution is to construct more of the same type of rope that I have already incorporated, and strap the bottoms of the boxes all the way around pedestals. It's the only non-destructive solution I can think of in such short notice. The other solution would be to weight the box so that it stays put, but I have such a small space to work with inside the box that it may not even be feasible. I could also screw my project box directly into the podium, but like I said, let's keep things non-destructive.



I also finally discovered exactly how the mapping in my code works. This line of code maps the values from the range finder to the motor:

int angle=map(pwmRange, 0, 1023, 0, 180);

0 to 1023 is the range for the ultrasonic range finder, and 0 to 180 correspond to the motor. When I was originally using the limited range servo, 0 and 180 corresponded to the degrees that it moved. However, with the continuous rotation servo, the range refers to the speed and direction of the rotation. 90 is supposed to put the motor at a complete stop, 0-89 is one direction, and 91-180 is the other direction. Now, with the range finder, that means that one has to be a certain distance away to keep the motor still. Too close and it will rotate, and same goes for too far. This knowledge has significantly changed my project.

Tug-of-War is supposed to be about conflict, and winning the conflict. People have used it as a metaphor for overcoming our demons or overcoming a situation. Originally, I intended for people to just walk around and watch the motors tug and pull with each other. However, with the knowledge that there is a precise physical position that viewers have to be in to keep the motors at equilibrium.

Equilibrium. Isn't that what life is all about? Balance? Keeping a balance between work life and personal life. Keeping a balance of power in a relationship. Keeping a balanced diet, etc. When everything is balanced, life seems to be in order. We struggle so hard in life to keep this balance and sometimes when it gets out of whack, everything seems to get tangled up.

What I propose is a sort of game. Instead of trying to win at tug-of-war, the goal is to keep the rope at rest, to keep it at the center, and it keep both sides at equilibrium.

Balance. Beautiful.