pic: BUBBLES!

[Billfred]

Goodness, that was an experience.

We had a few kinks at the Chapin Labor Day Parade, but we made it.

As for the bubble maker, it fell victim to a couple things. First, I think the potentiometers to control the rotation of the fan and Fisher-Price motor we used might be of questionable quality. Second, all the jumping around (in no small part because of the turns with us pushing or lifting the pneumatic wheels) led to the bubble solution sloshing around, creating a unbubblable situation. Thirdly, the knobs of the controls kept rubbing against our driver, which made the Fisher-Price motor speed up, making it essentially a giant egg-beater that only made more suds.

So for anyone planning on replicating this design: make sure you can control your motors right, and hope you don't slosh around too much!

(We've got one more parade, the Irmo Okra Strut Parade, coming up later this month. With any amount of luck, we'll have it knocked out by then.)