March 29, 2015 Today was the second of a two-build-session weekend. Thankfully the energy and productivity of the team was much higher than the last time we had a double build. After today we’ll have four more build sessions before Discovery Channel Canada visits on April 18, and we’ll need them all! There was a marathon that closed the bridge this morning, so instead of our usual meeting time of 10-3 we got together from 12-5. So far the suit weighs about 50 pounds, so it takes a couple of people to man handle it: 
Joseph spent a good deal of time editing the video update from yesterday’s build session while Cole, Joesph and Ed worked with a guest to debug a problem PC: 
Connor finished 3D printing the first of two joystick mounts, and began building the cables needed to connect the joystick to the control boards: 
Cole debugged the second of four of the control boards (which were masterfully laid out by Gabriel) needed for the final suit: 
One nice aspect of this version of the control boards is that they have what are known as ISP (In System Programming) headers, meaning that we don’t have to remove the Arduino chips from the board to reprogram them. The problem with removing the chips is that each time you do there is a chance that you will bend the pins to the point that they break. The ISP headers will therefore make it much faster and easier to continually refine the software to get better and better responsiveness out of the suit. Next weekend we’ll work on mounting and connecting the Enfield proportional valves, the pneumatic hose, and the valve drivers.
