SEASONS

The motor only turns one way

We found out the hard way.

It was one of those days where everything goes wrong. We thought we got a jump on this week's checkpoint. Turns out the wires we used for our prototype motor control board weren't thick enough to handle the current. In the process of remaking the board, we made so many mistakes: using the wrong pins, soldering bad connections, and reversing the motor supply/ground.

We thought reversing the supply and ground of the motor wouldn't hurt us for this checkpoint. It'll just spin the other way, we thought. Six hours after we first entered lab today, we resorted to directly powering our motor from the bench's supply instead of using our circuit board. Dexter happened to connect the leads backwards. The motor didn't turn. We finally realized the problem: the motor only turns one way.