DRIVE-2 Unpacking and Assembly

Please read through this before beginning. This is a preliminary guide -- please help us improve it by asking questions!

Suggestions:

• Find a big open table to unpack on because the items in the box take up a lot of space initially
• Everything is attached to a solid plate inside the package: Lift that out from the box before to leave the packing peanuts behind
• Clear plastic stretch wrap is used to hold everything together: don't cut that until the plate has been lifted out and put on a table

With the plate on a table you can make some cuts through the plastic stretch wrap and it should pull away in large pieces.

Put aside for later:

1. the white cardboard box (contains the Birch interface and related items)
2. the brown cardboard box (contains the BE-17m extension bundle)

Gather these items for assembly:

1. (4) loose rods, two long, two short
2. (2) side panels: one left and one right
3. Pedal assembly with two support rods
4. Steering shaft (hollow tube with gray plastic termination on one end)
5. Steering wheel
6. Steering assembly in two parts (one part has orange components and gray box, the other part is a gray plate with a slot in it, and two screws)

Assembly

This time lapse video may be helpful if you have a viewer that will enable the speed to be changed, frames to be stopped, and zooming capabiity. Because this video goes very fast you may also want to use the space bar to stop and start as you follow it. And if you open it in another browser tab it will be larger.

• General techniques
  • Insert all rods slightly at first
  • Don't push any rods all the way in until all of them are started into their holes
  • Work around the frame iteratively, pushing the rods in 1cm or so at a time
  • Try not to sharply bend the shiny black tubing -- it contains the optical fibers
  • Attach the frame to the base last, and use a large screwdriver for that because a small one can strip the nylon screws easily
  • The screws do not need to be very tight and the plastic can strip if they are over-tightend

• Order of re-assembly
  1. First, set the left and right side up
  2. Then put the rear 'X' in place (note the yellow tape identifying the first corner to connect)
  3. Connect the pedal assembly support rods on each wide
  4. Attach the front plate of the steering assembly to the square top plate using the two screws (the thumbscrew should face 'out')[Note 1]
  5. Attach the steering wheel to the steering shaft (it is keyed and is a tight press fit) [Note 1]
  6. Slide the steering shaft through the front loop and then through the orange steering box connectors [Note 1]
  7. Insert the two longer loose rods into the rear two holes of the top support plate
  8. Insert the two shorter loose rods into the front two holes of the top support plate
  9. Attach the top support plate to the rest of the frame using the four 'spider' rods
  10. Connect the optical fibers (see below)
  11. Work around all of the tube connections to press them in fully in at least two iterations
  12. Measure that the width of the fram is the same at the front and back (to confirm things are tight)

Note 1: These steps are not shown in the video -- sorry!

Optical Connections

Connect the steering assembly optics by pressing the 2-pronged connector in to the angled receptacle. The shiny black tubing should flow downwards:

Connect the small fiber cable to the end of the steering shaft. This is a little tricky because the fibers coming from the button terminate in a connector that does not come far out the end of the tube, so it is hard to press it into the matching connector on the fiber cable. Use a screwdriver or other small tool to hold the connector in a fixed place while pressing the fiber connection in to it.

Next Steps

Now you can make the rest of the connections and test the system: Drive2UseWithBirch