As part of this workshop, you should divide up into teams of 3-4 people. Try to find people with a similar boat "vision" as you to partner with.
There will be two different boat models that each team can make as part of the NodeBoats workshop. One is a motor-propelled boat, and the other is a paddle boat. Each kit should have all supplies needed for either type of boat! Keep in mind that the motor-propelled boat does require some soldering, so keep this in mind when deciding which kind of propulsion you want for your boat!
Each boat kit will include the following materials. Make sure you let us know if any components are missing! (Please also keep in mind that we do need the parts back at the end of the day!)
- Particle Core (or Spark Core) maker's kit
- Plastic food container with lid
- Breadboard
- 0.1 uF ceramic capacitor (these are really small, so come get yours from us!)
- Battery holder
- Batteries (come get these from us too)
- Tamiya motor pod (needed for motor boat)
- Sparkfun motor driver (needed for motor boat)
- Breakaway headers (needed for motor boat - come get yours from us or use the ones in the Particle kit!)
- Micro servo (needed for motor boat)
- 2 Continuous rotation servos (needed for paddleboat)
- Goopy goo glue sealant
- Styrofoam (we have sheets and will cut off what your boat needs)
- Popsicle Sticks!
- Hot glue gun
- Soldering irons & solder
- Heat shrink tubing & heaters
- Wire cutters/strippers
- A drill
- Box cutters
- Googly eyes
You may need some help while setting up your NodeBoat. Here are some tips and tricks so you can learn from our experiences:
First Time Using Johnny-Five? Don't hesitate to ask us for help! That's why we're here. Here are some intro materials and parts of the docs that will be particularly helpful while building your boats:
- The Johnny-Five Hello World (Make sure you select the Spark Core example.)
- Standard Servos (These are the smaller servos in your kit.)
- Continuous Rotation Servos
- Motor Driver (Don't worry about the wiring. You should follow the diagram included in the "Building a Motor-Propelled Boat" section for how to connect the Sparkfun Motor Driver.)
- Heya (A library wrapper around Johnny-Five for quickly and easily making driving robots)
- Spark Error Codes (If you get a "Unable to connect to spark cloud" error, note the error number and compare it with the list of error codes in the "Errors" section)