The target for this week was editing some video. That video was taken last week and filmed last week but edited this week. It is attached to last week's update.
This week I found out that there is a potential customer for the still-in-development Electric Motor Module! This is exciting and scary at the same time. Exciting because someone out there, besides me, thinks that this is a good idea. Scary because there is now a deadline for something to work.
Getting everything working on my garage floor last week was a very big step, but much work remains. On the electrical side:
- Do we stay with a DC motor and controller or move to an AC system?
- What kind of batteries should we use, and how many?
- How do we mount the batteries to the Motor Module Frame?
Then there are some issues that are a bit more mechanical in nature:
- Which transmission should we use?
- What type of transmission, automatic or standard?
- How do we source the motor to transmission adapter and mounting plate?
- How do we adapt the output drive shafts of the selected transmission to the 2006+ Honda Civic wheels that WIKISPEED uses?
I entered these decision tasks, some follow-on tasks, and some miscellaneous tasks into a package that WIKISPEED is using called KERIKA. (
www.kerika.com if you are interested)
Kerika is an interesting software product. It is like a Kanban board, where you have a bunch of tasks posted on the left of the board in the approximate order of priority. From that list each member of the team selects the highest priority item that they know how to do, or that they WANT to know how to do, and assigns it to themself. Normally the people who WANT to know how to do something seem to be the ones that assign the task to themselves and then go about talking to the rest of the group to find out who is there that KNOWS how to do the task. At that point they pair up and do the task TOGETHER. It's progress, but it's training, and it's a 2 person team so there are different perspectives.
When the task is done to the satisfaction of both team members, they take a short video of it working, or of them describing how it works and post it to the WIKISPEED youtube channel. The task is moved to Pending Review. At that point, the person in the shop who knows the most about that task reviews it with the team and determines if it is done or if there is all or part of it that needs some more work. If it passes review, it is moved to the DONE column and a bell is sounded to let everyone know that another task was completed.
The Kerika software does not have a bell, and not all participants are logged in at the same time. But I'm told that the effect is similar by those who participate in both methods.
For next week, some research is required. A few phone calls or emails to determine if the list of options can be narrowed. A discussion with the potential client to see what their expectations are, and how best to fulfill them.