Orders are In!

Hello Zoomies!

We've got the car! Or it's on its way anyways.

We've connected our GoFundMe account with LASA Robotics, so now all of your wonderful donations can be put to good work. Thus far, we've ordered the John Deere Gator as well as the bluetooth receiver that will shut down the car when triggered by the kill switch.

Once the car gets here, we'll be able to assess it to determine how we plan on making the other modifications, such as moving the gas pedal, as it'll be easier to plan once we actually know what we're dealing with

Our initial modifications did need some adapting: due to an initial miscommunication, the family wanted a remote kill switch, which I knew and thought would be difficult, but Alyssa did not realize and thought we simply needed one on the vehicle, which is significantly easier to make. We got a little worried about this much more daunting task, but ended up getting a Bluetooth kill switch designed to shut down cars remotely to prevent theft and save battery, which we are confident can be used on the ride-on car as well. Another issue was with the seat-belt. The family would like a 3-point seat-belt, like those you find in real cars, which is much safer and more supportive than a 2-point one (like those in airplanes), but the back behind the seat we had planned on attaching it to moves, as it's a part of the bed at the rear of the vehicle that can tip back like a dump truck. As a solution, we'll be installing a kick board, as it is a strong, solid board behind the seat to attach the belt to.

I'm not going to lie, it's been a stressful week. There's not been much to do but wait to receive the car, and in trying to plan for its arrival, we have kept running into setbacks with our initial modification design. While this did crush our spirits a bit, I feel like the realization that creating this car will never be as simple as we plan for was something we needed. By the end of the year, we want a functional car, and that's going to involve some obstacles that need to be overcome. It's not rocket science, but it is a completely new process for the both of us, so I'm glad we're learning to anticipate those setbacks so we can plan for them and get this car done on time, and well.

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Hopefully, we'll have a car next week, and we can carry out our game-plan for the rest of the semester:

- Analyze car, especially acceleration mechanism, so we can determine how the pedal will be moved to the left side

-Order any plates/wiring we may need to carry out that change safely, and install

- Work on installing the kill switch, and test it out, probably with Alyssa's super cute little sister who is very excited to be our guinea pig

- Check out kick boards, and order the seat-belt so we can work on adding that as well, in accordance with Houston's measurements.

-Test out the final car

-Have a Go Baby Go Engineer/Clinician check out the vehicle

-Give Houston his car!