Kit Log #040: Brain kit instructions generated and LIVE!

by Erin RobotGrrl | Jan 19, 2020 | News, Progress Logs

By coincidence, was reminded that the brain kit instructions need updating. This was the first kit that we worked on and realised that we are definitely going to need to write a script to help automate some of this. Their google sheet needed a few tweaks to have it compliant with the python script to generate the html of the instruction pages. Today, these tweaks were made, and the generator ran smoothly. The brain kit instruction pages are now updated. Check it out here: bowie brain kit and press the big green GO button.

As mentioned in the previous kit log, the next kit log will be about some of the other todo items like organising the bill of materials for a few of the kits.

Kit Log #029: Brain kit csv to tables

by Erin RobotGrrl | Jan 6, 2020 | News, Progress Logs

This is one of those updates where a lot of the previous effort starts to look like it is starting to come to fruition. Today we did the manual work of moving the descriptions from google docs to sheets for the brain kit. However, before jumping in to the next step, first we had to do some edits that we stumbled across that were not complete. In total, there were 24 edits that had to be made.

After that, export as csv and write the python script to translate that into the html for the tables. A couple of tweaks were needed, then it was ready. Exported all of the text files for each separate part, then copy and pasted them into wordpress pages. What a treat to finally see this (almost) live! See it for yourself here. (And the other pages in the navigation bar.)

A few more additions are necessary, such as the descriptions for each part, as well as buttons to advance or go to the previous page. The dropdown menu orders the list 1. 10. 11. 2., so not sure how to fix that apart from putting z in front of 10 and 11.

The next steps will be to continue the written descriptions for kit log. Power pack is the next one in line.

Kit Log #028: Scripts and photos on the page

by Erin RobotGrrl | Jan 5, 2020 | News, Progress Logs

Today we wrote two simple scripts to help automate some of this. The first one was a simple one to put the sequence of images for steps into a csv file, which is then imported into google sheets. This worked, and now the written instruction descriptions for the power pack, super bright lights, operator interface, and wheel kit, are waiting to be written. After this is done, another script will need to be written to take that export of csv, and turn it in to the html for the tables. See the work in progress here.

The next one was also a simple script to take a sequence and generate the html for the tables. This one is sort of manual, because it’s taking what we see on the brain kit instructions in google docs, and preparing it for the tables. Inserting the descriptions will be a manual process still.

The next steps are all somewhat manual intensive, so it will mainly be about chipping away at the tasks until they are complete.

Kit Log #017: Brain kit 4->5

by Erin RobotGrrl | Dec 23, 2019 | News, Progress Logs

Today we finished the last 2/3rds of writing the written descriptions for the Brain kit. There were a few steps that could be deleted too, which meant going from 55 pages in a google doc down to 51 pages. The next step is to go through it for editing – there are some steps that are missing the part numbers, and there are “TODO” comments scattered throughout. Then will be organising the getting started code. After that step will be pretty exciting, we’ll get to start putting it on the website!

We also took a tally of where the other kits are in the process:

Brain kit – step 5

Power pack – step 2.5

Super bright lights – step 2

Operator interface – step 0.5

Motor kit – step 0.5

It was sort of overwhelming this morning to try to figure out where to start, since there’s a lot to do across a lot of kits. Taking the tally helped to take a step back (pun not intended) and see where some headway could be made today. Tomorrow we’ll complete the editing on brain kit, and try to get operator interface and motor kit to 1’s.

Kit Log #003: Packing Bowie Brain Kit Demos

by Erin RobotGrrl | Dec 10, 2019 | News, Progress Logs

Welcome to these Bowie Kit progress log updates. We’re going to show you behind the scenes of how we are progressing on documentation and preparing Bowie Kits. In this log, we are packing the Bowie Brain Kit. What we did was organized all the components necessary for a Bowie Kit into a box. We also found packaging for the boxes at Dollarama that would fit, the colour was a pleasant surprise. The labels were made by laser cutting bristol board and taping them to the box. The delicate components are placed inside the bottom enclosure. The Bowie Brain circuit board is added on top, then the motor connectors. The top enclosure is added, and this then gets wrapped. After that, it goes into the box. The packaging fluff stuff is recycled from Digikey. The loose components are labelled and go in to yet another recycled Digikey bag. The packing list is then added on top, with some more recycled packing fluff stuff.

Check out the photos with captions below in the image gallery to see the process of packing of the kit.

That’s all for now. We’re starting the kit log at #003, but there were a couple of steps before this one. We don’t know how long it will take until the kit is finished, so that’s why there’s space for 999 logs in the numbering of the title. Hopefully it won’t take 999. The logs are to be written quickly, like as if it were a captains log on a spacecraft during a long journey. Stay tuned for more kit logs. We will probably have a contest at some point to guess how many logs it will take until *everything* for version 1.0 is on the store.