This is the underbelly of our Chariot and Pole System model. we chose to use a central rod to control our chariots because we thought it would be the easiest variation to reproduce. This proved to be a challenge none the less.
As you can see, there are a number of strings leading from the center dowel. 24 to be exact. These strands will be connected to the chariots. There will be two Strands to each Chariot, one pulling and one letting out line. in order for this to work properly, we had to think out which way the strings should be wrapped around the dowel. one strand will be connected directly to the chariot from the dowel, the other will be connected by first looping around a hook on the far side of the chariot and then to the most distal part of the chariot.
During the tedious process of connecting the strands to the dowel, we came upon some complications. originally we had no separation between the strands which made them wrap around each other making the system nonfunctional. we solved this by adding washers onto the dowel. it was a set back which caused us to lose a lot of time.
Our model has 3 wings, which means it has 3 sets of the Chariot and Pole System. We connected the Strands to the Flats using Popsicle stick pieces and hot glue. this process was very time consuming and one of the reasons why we ran out of time. In order for the system to work properly, each strand must be tightly attached with the right tensions. otherwise, if the lines were slack, the flats would not move together.
The Chariots are each made up of cut outs of Matte Board with a set of wheels glued to the bottom of them. these wheels were made out of popsicle sticks and peices of dowel with Finder Washers inserted in them. This helps the Chariots to move more moothly while giving them some bottom weight.
The Stage we built has 6 slits in it. this is where the flats will come through the stage for the scenic designs to be put on. our stage is raked by an inch from front to back.
One other problem we encountered was the space that the chariots needed and the space we had laid out at the start were very close but not exact. the Chariots were running into each other which did not work well for our needs. to solve this problem we could choose one of two options, #1 being to remake the stage so that the chariots were further apart, which would solve many problems, or #2 being to sand down the chariots until they snugly fit into the space originally provided. we chose #2 because it seemed to be the easiest and quickest solution. this later causes some more problems and alterations which might have been avoided had option #1 been chosen.
After much trile and Error, we have our final product of having the flats set one way, and by a turn of a handle, they move accross and change to annother way.
The complications that i talked about earlier are that the chariots would slide along the bottom in directions we did not want them to go. this led to us building a track for them to slide along. And when we thought that building a track would solve everything, it didn't solve the problem of the chariots derailing the tracks and still going places we didn't want them to go. so we built a second track which sat on top of the chariot wheels keeping them from lifting up to much. this seemed to solve all our problems and we were getting close to our deadline when we discovered that our tracks were forcing our chariots to rub up against each other too much causeing a lot of friction. we soon after found that in one of our demonstrations, our chariot and pole system would only work smoothly in one direction. we would have to reset the system each time with a combination of turning the handle and moving them manually by hand. which we decided was alright for our needs.
If we were to redo this model, i believe that making the chariots further apart would help with everything and might have solved this problem.
