Pat has been soldering connectors to the LED strips and connections between the LED rings. She has also been testing them by connecting each individual component to the breadboard. She also soldered connections onto a new button with a different tactile feel because the pins do not fit the normal PWM crimped connectors.

Currently, we have an issue with battery or the WAGO wire connectors. Pat has been testing a simple case of using the battery to power a single LED strip of 21 individual LEDS, but it has not worked although working on the breadboard. Pat talked to Kevin, and he suggested that the connections within the WAGO gates are not connecting properly, so we have switched from raw wire connections to the crimped connections and exposed approximately 10mm of the battery barrel jack wires. We also charged the battery to ensure it wasn't the issue either. However, the LEDs are still not lighting, so we are awaiting an answer for now..

We eventually want to not have to connect the Pi Pico to Pat's laptop, so should we be powering the Pi Pico with a battery? Will it not run code without power?

After this simple case is resolved, we can connect the rest of the LEDs! Pat and Kevin did the math, and our battery can approximately power 70 LEDs at full brightness. Currently, we approximately have 100 or more LEDs. So, we need to scale down the brightness with a scalar somewhere in the code to have about 2/3 of full brightness. The LEDs are extremely bright and look very cool B).

Ale has been printing more of the ribs, the top fin, and started designing the head with the jaw and trigger handle. She also redesigned the hex core holder. 

We are debating what servo motor to use to open the jaw because each piece has been around a pound or half a pound, so we are not sure if two micro-servo motors can carry that load or whether we should use a single bigger servo.

NOW WE MUST PRACTICE CDR SLIDES!