02x09 - Band Cam

[bunniefuu]

♪ We've got two days to get this straight

♪ We got a challenge just won't wait

our eyes are on the prize ♪ An engineer

just set the date ♪ We got this client

can't be late oh, no, it's go time

♪ Build it, test, fix it debug now and kick it

♪ Got to get it off the ground yeah

♪ Stick around and you'll see what teamwork's supposed to mean

♪ It's so key Design Squad

Design Squad!♪

[ whirring] What's that noise?

What is that?

What's that?

Ah!

All right, this is already really cool.

Oh, I love flying.

It's so cool.

So now do you guys think you know what today's client wants?

No.

No, not at all.

Ah.

Let's roll the tape.

We are Zili Misik.

[ woman singing]

[ Zili Misik singing]

We are an eight-piece, all- female roots music band that

performs music from the African diaspora.

Here's where you come in, Design Squads.

We'd like you to build us a remote-control camera system

that will film us live in concert.

But here's the catch.

You must cover the concert from the air.

The aerial camera system that captures the best footage wins

and will appear on our Web site.

[ Zili Misik singing] ♪ Good luck, Design Squads.

[ laughter and applause] What do you say, Design

Squads?

That's really awesome.

Wow.

Cool stuff.

So let's review the specs, all right?

You guys are building aerial camera systems that are remote

controlled to capture footage of their live concert.

Everything you need is in your work spaces.

Yes!

Any questions?

That's so cool.

Can we get started?

Don't blow it, Design Squads.

Get brainstorming.

Wow.

Oh, wow.

Ah, yeah.

Ooh, these are nice servos.

Two remote controls.

We have balsa wood.

Balloon.

Is this the camera?

Yes.

We have a program for running the camera through this.

Nice.

Oh, we do?

Yeah.

You guys, I'm going to be the electronic guy.

I'm going to make the camera work and everything.

Wait, no.

We're not jumping in to anything.

No, no, no, no, no.

We need a plan before you start messing with electronics.

From the idea I got, like, we should do something that's,

like, a blimp or, like, a zeppelin.

I want to make a little blimp.

It's going to be all little and cute.

I just think that we should concentrate on making the camera

stationary itself-- like, attached to the balloon-- and

making the balloon move.

I don't know if I like that, because it's going to be a lot

of shots of where it's like...

it's like straightforward, straightforward,

straightforward, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly.

Once we... okay, from experience, once we start

getting into these crazy details, we run out of time, and

then we get zero points.

I agree with you.

I mean, a balloon...

It has to be a balloon.

Yeah.

I get you, man.

I get you.

When I saw the teams, I was a bit worried, because it's kind

of clashing personalities.

With Tomas and Jason, they kind of get at each other's throats.

Then Tomas and Deysi, because it's kind of like an ongoing

joke with everyone that Tomas hates women.

He kind of does things without telling the group.

So he kind of tends to do that and then kind of tends to mess

things up.

Does anyone have any ideas, like, of how we're going to do

this?

A giant blimp of sorts.

You mean something like this?

All you'd have to do for the camera, just have a box kind

of... and then a turntable up here that's connected to a

servo.

So that spins.

And then here's your camera.

And just have another servo there.

We're probably going to have to have two controllers, one

person on the blimp and another person on the camera, just so it

would be easier for...

Yeah, I mean, but we have two...

Yeah, we do have two of these, so...

...of these things, so yeah.

All right.

Well, let's get it cracking.

I want to help with the blimp.

All right.

Leah and I will take care of the camera system.

Want to just do a mockup of the framework out of balsa wood?

It's going to basically be this framework.

This wooden dowel right here is the pivot for our camera.

Well, today was just one of those rare days of not...

everyone just walked in there, and the question wasn't like

what are we going to do?

It was when are we going to start building?

We all just were all on the same page.

We all wanted to do a blimp and just sort of figured out exactly

how we wanted to do the camera thing.

We split off and got working.

We need to build a frame in order to mount all these motors

and everything.

What if they're attached to a... the bottom of the balloons

are just attached to a really lightweight piece of plywood.

Like, the mounts of the balloon could go into two holes we drill

into the platform.

I like the platform idea.

We should have one.

Let me make a good drawing.

If you want to do the back propeller, this is how we're

going to do it.

We're going to cut a piece of triangle, right?

Make a hole here.

And then there's... we have the back propeller.

We just mount it.

It's so simple.

So now for the sides.

We have a propeller here.

And then the same thing on the other side, right?

So the back propeller will make the thing move forward, and the

sides are just... when this works, the entire front will

move to the right.

So when the other propeller works, the entire frame will

move to the left.

What are you doing for upward and downward motion?

The propeller will be on there.

The propeller will tend to push this up.

I personally just... I don't think it's going to work the way

that we're imagining it to be working.

Trust me.

It's going to work.

Like my eyeballing, I never mess up, so...

[ laughter]

Don't say you never mess up, because you don't know when

you're going to mess up.

Oh, Deysi, Deysi, you should have been working with me on the

last challenge.

Tomas, Tomas.

Oh, please, buddy, please, you are not perfect.

Oh.

How's it going?

It's going pretty well, actually.

Right now, this is my design so far.

Uh-huh.

So I have the three pieces right there then.

Yeah.

As soon as they're done building the structure for the

camera, I can draw... or I can cut a section out to put... so

the servo can stick up, because that's how their design is

coming.

Yeah.

And then I'm figuring we'll put two fans on each side.

Got you.

So you've got... you've got a two-axis gimbal coming off the

bottom for the camera.

Yeah.

Okay.

And then you've got wings coming off for fans?

Yeah, well, I'm... yeah, two... I'm going to have two

fans coming off the sides.

Sweet.

That's going to be cool.

This is getting a little heavy already.

Weight is critical.

A blimp or dirigible is a propelled, steerable balloon

that uses buoyancy to stay afloat.

The buoyant force is equal to the weight of the air that's

displaced by the balloon.

Since the helium that fills the balloon weighs less than the air

being displaced, the balloon has lift.

But air is light, so the balloon's buoyant force is

small.

If Purple Team's blimp is close to neutrally buoyant, meaning

the entire structure has the same weight as the air it

displaces, it will stay at the same height.

Then they would only use the propellers to change altitude,

to go higher or lower, to move forward, and to steer.

If the team's blimp is heavier than air, they'll need to run a

dedicated lift propeller all of the time just to stay afloat.

And that will make the blimp harder to control and will

quickly drain the battery.

Build fast, succeed sooner.

Keep building.

I'll come check in later.

Who says we're failing?

Ooh.

That looks really nice.

Yes, it does.

I need several holes because in case where we put the balloon

the first time doesn't work out, we can just move it back to a

different hole.

Not at all.

Put some more.

Bring it over.

[ loud popping] [ laughter]

Oh, my gosh, that's huge.

It's getting bigger.

We can't really decide how big we want our balloon or blimp

to be until we know how much the camera and the servos and the

batteries that are going to be attached to it are going to

weigh, because it needs to be enough helium so that it keeps

it off the ground, but also not so much helium that it soars

off.

Yeah, it's off the scale.

We're going to have to cut weight wherever we can.

All right, so let's try to get these all attached, and then

we can try it out.

...so that it doesn't come out of the hole.

I think we might build a triangle support for that.

It has to be, like, on the same...

Deysi and I have decided to master the camera.

What's this?

Oh, wow.

Look, look, look, look, look.

What?

No way.

Oh, my goodness, it works.

Oh, yeah.

Deysi, you look good.

Thank you.

You don't step behind either.

Look at you.

Are you ready to test a little bit?

Yeah.

Try it.

Right side.

Left side.

Yeah, that works.

I'm going to push this thing down.

Get it tethered to it.

No, I'm not getting a tether.

Are you guys about to test?

Yeah.

You're welcome to join us.

This is the leg that I'm going... well, it doesn't need

to be really strong because the frame is light.

Test, anyone?

We're almost there.

[ whirring]

Their whole thing, like, it goes up and just, like, spins

around.

Back out of the way, Leah.

We're going to try it one more time.

Okay.

Oh, the humanity!

Oh, no!

Did it break?

No.

Theirs broke.

Theirs broke.

How awesome is that?

Theirs broke?

Shut up.

Don't even joke.

Don't even say... don't even...

No, you work.

You work.

Don't even say anything, because you don't know, because

you don't know.

I want to test.

You want to break it?

Come on, trust me.

It's going to work, once I put all this stuff right.

Come on, you trust me, right?

You always say, "Trust me, trust me."

I don't trust you, Tomas.

You know, if it's just, like, a five-second adjustment, then

okay.

All right.

Where's the thing?

Where's the thing?

But this is turning into, like, a -minute affair.

Now I'm going to turn it over.

Turn it over.

Can I try the...

[ cracking] What happened?

The legs broke.

That's what happens when you're in a hurry.

[ cracking] Whatever, just leave it.

No, we can't... we can't go.

This has to be done right.

It was a great landing.

Any landing you can walk away from, right?

Yeah.

Does anyone have suggestions, like, for how was can control

that so that it's not rotating like that?

What about two balloons?

Like, because if we had a balloon attached here and a

balloon attached here, it would stop it from doing the whole,

like, wiggle like that.

And then also, it would probably discourage it from rotating.

Stop it from rotating.

Yeah, I'm proud.

Yeah, good day one.

I'm really proud.

I think we did a good.

Yeah, good day one.

Yeah, great.

High fives all around for the team.

Purple Team, Purple Team.

That balloon is smaller.

Well, it doesn't matter.

That's probably why.

Yeah, let's try.

So, guys, up first, and then...

[ whirring] No.

Faster than that.

Faster...

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

No!

Stop.

That was you.

But no, you turned it on first.

I have .

That's something that we have to realize next time, is we know

who's controlling what.

And also the balloons have to be the same size.

That's why maybe the smaller balloon...

No, I think... because one end was heavier, it wasn't even

getting up in the air.

All we got to do is work with the legs.

A lot of it is hot glue, Tomas.

All right, all right.

Okay, that's for tomorrow.

Yeah, let's wait.

Let's go.

I'm ready.

All right.

I think our major, major problem is weight and balance.

Yes.

And so we somehow have to figure that out, because right

now, the structure that we have is way too heavy.

So we're using four batteries right now, right?

At this point, yeah, four.

Can we cut it down to two?

It's worth a try.

Solder these two wires together so one of these

batteries will power two receivers.

It'll save us a lot of weight, so that's good.

This is much better.

Where are we going to attach a second balloon?

So I'm thinking if we just fix the two balloons onto a rod,

that way, like... and the rod's attached to this, that way,

you're turning the rod and everything.

I like this idea.

There we go.

Oh, wow.

Love that.

Do you want to see how much this weighs?

Okay, so this side is heavy.

Oh, that's bad.

Is that maxed?

.

That's horrible.

I think, right now, this definitely isn't going to work.

No.

And if we continue on this route through the end of the

day, I think we need to accept that, like, it won't work and we

will probably lose.

It's just too heavy.

It's just too massive.

Since we spent time doing it, I say we test it and then see what

we can learn from that.

So are you ready to test it to see how it looks on the...

I am ready to test this.

All right, let's go.

Oh, there it goes.

Look at me.

That's you.

Okay, see if you can direct the camera.

All right, let's see.

That's really odd.

It's so tiny.

Well, that's all right.

We're still stars.

I know.

I love that.

We're on TV.

We got our camera done, excited.

So everything's ready...

like, the platform is ready to be attached.

All right, great.

Let's see if it's going to go up a little bit, and then you

can add more power.

So I'm going just up and down.

And let me get the left and right.

Look, that's...

Oh, wow.

Easy, my friend, easy.

Don't rev it.

Okay, that's enough.

Sorry.

Whoa, watch out.

My thing went crazy.

Okay, okay.

All right, so successful test.

Yeah.

All my doubts are gone.

But I think what we have to do right now is check out our

camera.

So do you want to go in there and try to work on it?

A little bit more.

Building ourselves a little pilot.

All right, you guys, you ready to test it?

Yes, I am so ready to test it.

All right, let's go.

Powering on.

[ whirring]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Keep it down around...

It's going.

Keep it down.

I'm controlling the camera right now.

Looking good.

Yeah, I think it's... as long as I just go a lot slower than I

have been.

Let's go back to the workspace.

I can't see a thing now.

I lost connection.

Now I got it back.

That's good.

Okay.

Do we want to talk about our frame?

Is it okay?

Are we comfortable with it?

The legs got to go.

All right.

So lets use, like, stronger wood than that.

There's this.

Basically imitate our original leg structure but make

it beefier with these.

Put a piece here and a piece here.

All right, guys, I think we're ready to test.

All right, we're rolling.

[ whirring]

It looked good onscreen, but it was low.

Light, light, light.

It's too heavy, because I'm almost at full speed, and it's

not even lifting all that.

Let's get rid of the things that are, like, unnecessary.

I'm starting the camera, guys.

Okay.

Go for it.

Please work, please work, please work.

Just try to hover.

Yes, very good.

Go up, go up.

Yeah!

Hold it, Jason.

Watch out, lights.

Tomas, you need to... you need to direct it, okay?

Do you want me to turn?

See?

It does good, okay.

Deysi, try to bring it towards the garage door.

Tomas, you got to turn.

[ laughter] All right, so how did you

guys feel about that test?

Were you okay?

Yeah.

I think that was the best test we've had.

Yeah, by far.

Yeah, today.

It's smooth too, right?

You can see in the camera.

You can see, you know.

It goes slow, you know, like a real camera.

Yeah.

All right.

I'm so happy now.

I mean, we've accomplished something really good.

High five here.

High five.

Good job.

I think I got pretty good at driving it, flying it.

Yeah, it looked really good.

We got this in the bag.

Good luck tomorrow, guys.

[ Zili Misik singing]

Hi, Zili Misik.

Hello.

Meet Design Squads.

Design Squads, Zili Misik.

Hi!

So the blimps are here.

Green Team, you guys ready?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's go do it.

Okay.

[ drum beat]

You went forward too much.

Deysi, why are you going forward?

Up, Deysi, up.

Up, up.

Go up.

You're not going up.

Go.

There you go.

But it's off balance.

What are you doing, Deysi?

Please!

Fix it, fix it.

What's going on?

[ popping] [ screaming and laughter]

Oh, my God!

Deysi!

Is everyone okay?

Oh, Deysi, I trusted you.

I was trying to push it this way.

You were supposed to go high.

You were going forward too much.

No, I did push it high.

Can we get another chance please?

Another chance?

You get one chance.

Yeah, but we had problems.

Green Team, you guys will get another shot.

We'll fill up another balloon for you.

Thank you.

Okay?

In the meantime, Purple Team's going to go, while we're

waiting, all right?

All right, good.

I think we're good.

To the staging area.

It's recording now, guys.

Action.

[ drum beat]

We're getting close, and you can't see anything.

We're just, like, going wide.

There's no close-ups at all.

Try and get some close-ups.

Bring it in a little closer.

♪ Walk on, walk on...

Get in there.

She said get close-ups.

Got to get closer, man.

Got to get it closer, man.

Ah, that's nice!

That's the one.

I love it!

We got to get that, what they're trying to do.

Dude, try and get one if you can come around in front of them

and catch their faces, because we don't have any of that.

Yeah.

That's it.

Keep going.

That's it, that's it.

Ah!

Ah, man.

[ cheering and applause] That was great!

All right, Green Team, this is your second and final chance.

Are you ready?

Oh, yeah.

You got this, Deysi.

Don't worry, don't worry.

All right.

And action.

[ drum beat]

Come this way.

All right.

Got to go forward, Deysi, forward.

Come up and forward.

Watch out, watch out.

Deysi, can you see?

Okay.

Whoa!

Oh, it got caught.

It's caught on a microphone stand.

Thank you!

♪ Walk on... [ cheering and applause]

Turn, Tomas.

Oh.

Go down, go down, go down, go down.

Not down that far.

It's going to blow.

Watch out, watch out.

Tomas, turn it!

Turn it.

Up!

[ popping] Oh, not again!

Go up, go up, go up.

Forget it.

Just run with it.

Just run with it.

Come on, come on!

Come on, have fun!

Come on, have fun!

Come on!

Yeah, we're losers.

Ah!

[ applause] Oh!

[ cheering and applause] Nice job to everybody, and we

do have an official decision.

So would you share who won?

Purple Team.

[ cheering and applause] Good job.

So points goes to each member of Purple Team, which

means that for the first time yet this season, Trejonda is now

on the board.

[ cheering and applause]

A win for Purple Team means Dewey floats to the top of the

scoreboard.

Hey, have you checked our Web site?

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

You can build projects on your own or with your friends, and

you can win cool stuff.

Oh, check it out.

Go to pbskidgo.org.

Coming up, hot diggity dog.

Needs onions, raw onion.

Do you have raw onions?

Argh.

Next time on Design Squad.