Final thoughts and Hero's Gala

This has been a very extensive project that has taken a lot of time, effort, planning and resources. Starting out I did not think we would get as far as being actual finalists in the Red Cross Hero's Gala Wearable Art Fashion Show. This project was quite an experience from beginning to end. The brainstorming, preparation and execution of the plan we came up with for the backpack was constantly being adjusted as we built the it. It seemed every time we came up with something we were tweaking it as the next part was being put into place.

Finalized...

It has been quite a road to get to the finish and I have to say that the backpack looks pretty good for what we had to go through to get it all together and working. Ali did great work getting the guts of the radio Rickey donated into the backpack and Ankhoa did some soldering to make sure the wires all stayed together. Jon, Jen and myself did the final bracing and drilling this past week to make sure the backpack won't wobble when worn and to get the LED panel attached to the backpack. The following are some pics of the various stages. We also applied another coat of paint to the panels to give a smoother finish. The speakers were also attached and everything was tested to make sure it works.

On the final steps...

This past week our mini group has met with the model that is going to be wearing our cross, Filip is about my height so the cross fit him just fine and he was comfortable moving around in it. There are some adjustments to one of the straps we have to make and finish the bracing that will hold on the LED board along with brackets to hold the panels in place. Ali and co. have figured out the power situation so everything should go together and we should a fully operational Deathstar backpack capable of conveying information visually and aurally. I snapped some pics of the progress we have made and here we go!

On Painting...

Last Thursday I picked up some primer and red paint (in spray can form). The team then dragged the cross backpack down to the Art college spray booth (a spray booth is extremely nice to have access to, I'll miss it for sure) and proceeded to give the whole thing a primer coat. The front panels were also given a decent coat of red, I think I did an ok job. I would have liked more time to lay down a better base coat of primer I just didn't know that access to the spray booth room pretty much stops at 5 pm.

The next day (Friday) I wrangled it back up to the room the whole group meets in and put some more adhesive on the inside corners due to the fact that they look like they are falling apart. They are going to need something stronger (epoxy or metal bracing) or just some reinforcement through the use of scrap mdf board, which I am having second thoughts about since I think we should use something sturdier. Hopefully someone has thrown out some thin scraps of plywood in the wood shop; going to have to send someone to check on that tomorrow.

As always sometime in the future pictures will be available, probably something I'll get to this Friday since I wasn't taking pictures, I was painting.

Success!

Jon and I did some work last Friday to attach the backpack frame to the cross and I feel we were quite successful. All the measuring and drilling went well and there was very little second guessing. There were problems with the front when we attached the individual panels though I think these are pretty cosmetic and can be fixed with manipulation of the overall design of the project. There is still painting to be done and I guess we'll find out then what can be fixed through decoration. If anything really needs to be adjusted I hope we will have the time to do so though if something is that serious then I believe doing something cosmetic is our best option. Enough with the talk, here are the pics!

The thing is finally nearing completion

The backpack group has gotten a lot done over the past few days. I've got some more shots from Spring Break and hope to be able to post more from this week at some point in the future. This week has seen the final attachment of the front cover sections and today should be the day we attach the frame, Jon and I plan on getting that done with a vengeance. Mainly because we don't want to worry about it any more. Without further bluster here are the other pics:

Some minor notes

Just a small sketch I found that had some of the notes I made on how to brace the cross. Some of which we were able to follow and some that were just not feasible due to the thickness of the material we used.

The ideas for the internal bracing for connecting each arms is shown as well as initial ideas for the corners. What we finally went with more closely resembles the lower left hand sketch of the outside corner. Depending how much give there is when it is finally attached to the frame more internal bracing may be needed though I doubt that given the structural integrity of the backpack frame.