Hi, this week we spent a lot of time thinking about the gear problem, which turned out to be more challenging than expected. The main issue was that the gears couldn’t rotate properly unless they were slightly elevated—otherwise, they would rotate at the same speed as the main gear, making the whole mechanism ineffective.

To fix this, we explored several solutions using both the laser cutter and the 3D printer (which we had never used before—so it was a first for us!). We considered adding a small cylinder as a spacer and also designed wooden blocks that would perfectly match the size of the holes, helping to lift the secondary gears.

After calculating the right dimensions, we laser-cut and 3D-printed the necessary components. Arnaud focused on producing these parts, while Carl started working on the final version of the code and laser-cut the clock numbers to improve the design.

All our components fit together nicely, and the manual tests showed that the gears could rotate freely without slipping or locking.
We were really pleased with how everything came together by the end of the session!