It was winter 2008-2009. New Year's holidays have passed, and I finally decided to start assembling something like that. But there were two problems:
- I did not fully understand what I wanted, there were a lot of thoughts and ideas, but they were either delusional, or fell under point 2.
- My technological experience was practically zero. Yes, the assembly of Lego and metal designers is better than nothing at all, but it’s just a drop in the sea.
However, I decided to take a chance and started to do it. I decided that it would still be some kind of car. True, at that time I did not particularly understand engineering matters, and decided to do everything as my intuition tells me, as I understand the principles of work and what financial and technical capacities I possess.
The first thing I again fell into the nearby construction market. At that time, the frame was my first priority. I understood that I needed something like a frame on which I already mounted all the equipment. For the frame, I chose profile tubes made of aluminum alloy - lightweight, easy to process and, as it turned out, have enough strength so as not to break under load with the right approach. So, already in the 10th grade, I took up practical exercises on sopromat - according to which I had a double in the university for the exam. I chose the first wheels, which I liked, and which, as I thought, would work fine - and they worked fine, but then I had to take a slightly larger one. Among other things, he took a package of bolts and all the necessary crap.
Upon returning home, I laid out all the purchases in my room on the floor (yes, I collected the car at home, thanks to my mother, although she was driving me with a broom, but not very much, because I understood all this). He laid it out on the floor, sat on the bed and looked like a broken trough. The first thought that arose in my head was “What did I get into ????”
After several days of work, IT turned out:
Yes, it looks like a horror movie. I have one friend, they call Seryoga, he even then said that I was crazy, but nevertheless helped me in the future, for which he had a separate respect :-)
So, the frame of this clear case was redone several more times, the video of the results will be at the end, already assembled. And yes, yes, yes - I took all the same sledges as the basis, maybe I'm an idiot, but then it seemed to me very logical, and it saved me a lot of work. It was necessary to check the idea and wasting no extra time was kosher.
The second problem, which turned out to be the main one, but was solved very simply and successfully - which engine to use? In internal combustion engines, I did not understand almost anything at that time, it seemed to me that it would be very expensive and difficult, it is impossible to store such engines at home (in any case gasoline - stink and fire hazard), and there is no reason to turn an apartment into a garage. It was decided to use electric traction. And to realize this is much simpler - a battery, a pair of wires and an engine, and all things - so I thought then.
I could not find a suitable engine for quite a long time, I used a bunch of options, but they were all weak and low-power (tens of watts, and I needed a few hundred watts, in order to not only move almost a centner of weight from the spot - the machine and I are on and accelerate at least a little faster than a pedestrian).
And here, very successfully, the washing machine broke :) And I with great pleasure pulled the engine out of there, it turned out to be just what you need. - can work from a direct current - such as give batteries. This engine, rated power of 475 watts, produced up to 1.5 kilowatts under load, judging by the power consumption. Shot at 1.3 megapixel slippers, do not throw tomatoes.
The last problem was just the battery of batteries. The engine runs on 240 volts (life-threatening voltage, do not repeat). The batteries that I found gave out 6 volts per cell. But they were of the lead-acid type. And this means that they give out huge power, can hold high current for a long time, and indeed they are not particularly fastidious in maintenance and work. But as I said - one battery produces 6 volts, ideally the engine needs 240. What should I do? That's right - you need more batteries.
Blushing and embarrassed, I came to my mother to brow, she asked how much money I needed? Embarrassed, I squeezed out of myself - 5,000 rubles (this is despite the fact that in 2009 the living wage of a pensioner was 5,030 rubles). And I was very surprised when they gave me this money. It was the month of March, the thaw, I spanking through the puddles came to the market.
- Boy, what do you want?
- I need these batteries
- How much do you need?
- I have everything there is. And he handed over a 5000 bill to the seller, who at that moment almost turned gray.
In short, they simply didn’t have that much in the store, so a special box of batteries brought me a special order in a few days. I already had everything I needed. All the summer I spent on assembling the car, fine-tuning, adjusting and tuning it. I wanted to do everything as professionally as possible, but, for obvious reasons, I had to put up with what happened, removing only the mowing places and bringing them to mind. The main task that stood at that moment - IT should go.
Autumn came when I realized that everything was ready for the test - day X was appointed - October 11, 2009, the day of the first test. I was worried, I called several of my friends who helped me, for which I am grateful to them. Yes, at that time we are still small, I don’t even have 18 on the video yet
Yes, it looks ridiculous and ridiculous, but it was a good experience, a month later the whole school already knew about me. And yes, this video still gained more than 1,000,000 views :)
A special effect was that when the views were approaching 1,000,000, I got on a pickup truck .
Picabu gave a kick effect. Every day after that, my channel collected from 1 to 3 thousand views. And on the day they posted it - almost 20k views.
I think that's all for today. In the next article I will try to talk more about earnings on YouTube, about my experience.