Welcome to Vacaville High School's Chapter of Society of Women Engineers.
SWE GOES 3D!
The club's 3D printer is a PRUSA i3 MK3, which came to us directly from Prague about a week ago. We bought the kit and assembled it ourselves over the course of 2 days - about 6 hours total in assembly. We were surprised not to have any problems with the assembly because all of the people in the comments section of the instruction guide said that they "kept breaking things." But our build went extremely smoothly, and we printed out the pre-loaded files - a PRUSA logo and a frog with silver filament. We're currently printing out "dog tags" personalized with the student's name for $5, and personalized mortarboard toppers (as soon as we have a few more designs, we'll display them in the main office - be sure to check them out!). We currently use TinkerCAD to make the model, and then PRUSA Control to generate the g-code, which tells the printer what to do. Come to room E-8 to purchase a personalized dog tag, or let a SWENext club member take your order!
DRONES 101!
In one of our first club meetings, we learned about the mechanics behind two 250 mm racing drones and their controller. We talked about the differences between brushless and brushed DC motors, a variety of flight boards, and the hardware and software that can be used with them. All of our members experimented with the different axes of control for a quad, and the relation of the controller's joystick movements to the pitch, roll, and yaw of the drone. We discussed frame materials and the basics of radio control, and we experimented with different pitches of propellers - i.e. how putting them on the wrong way can change the quad's flight patterns. We also discussed the challenges of soldering the power distribution board, spectacular crashes, and taking one of the drones apart in order to 3-D print a new frame. Thank you, Daphne, for sharing your drones!
