New Years

The New Year, the start of a new calendar, is time for making changes with a fresh start. To many it occurs on January 1st, but to those who follow a University Calendar it is clearly marked as taking place on a Wednesday in early September. Keeping with the fall festivities around the university, Sailbot has been working away on their New Year's resolutions, new developments and plans for upcoming semesters. Paperwork is being filed, logos have been updated to more robust vector formats, advertising material is being created and events are being planned. Anybody who has been fond of the team or is looking to join should drop us a line, especially if they are interested in some Sailbot-branded material. Or, if you feel like a chat, stop into the AOSL (EN-1035E), we usually meet at 6 each Wednesday.

On a related note I would suggest that anyone looking for a professional level graphic design package on the cheap should check out the tools GIMP and Inkscape for scalar and vector design respectively. They are quite powerful, well maintained and documented but most importantly they are Open Source projects - worth checking out.

[-Jordan]

Actuator test

Development of new actuators is underway. An implementation of our shaft using aluminum resulted in some shearing and sad team members. So we remade it with stainless steel and new grub screws. Here's a test of the build that used a rapid-prototyped casing and a shaft which did not fail:

(Note: Musical tastes are those of the fabrication team and are not necessarily those expressed or endorsed by this blog.)

[Archive/Repost] Completion of first boat

We have reached are goal of mechanically completing the boat. The ship is now a floating vessel. A few team members seem married to her, so we called her 'The Missus'