Construction of Original Design

During week four, the group assembled the SeaPerch according to the original design provided by the SeaPerch website. While doing so, several issues arose. Firstly, the kit lacked several pieces such as a sixth PVC pipe and nut. As a result the group compensated for the lack of the pipe and down sized the original design by about half an inch on almost every piece of pipe.

Figure 1: Standard PVC Pipe Dimensions

(when disassembled add a photo of the PVC pipes)

With respect to the lack of a nut the group had to discontinue working until it could be replaced.

The next problem to arise was during the mounting of the thrusters. Given to the group were three thruster mounts (Figure 3) that did not quite fit the thrusters properly. 

Figure 3: Two of the Three Thruster Mounts

Figure 5: Site of Attachment & Thruster Mount

Figure 4: Site of Attachment

To solve this problem, the mounts were bent and reshaped with needle head pliers. Once the thrusters were mounted onto the SeaPerch, the group finished assembling the original design. From here the next step in this process is testing it.