Battery and motor mounts for Spider

OK. So, in this video, we're going to take our five volt motors, and we're going to build some motor mounts using Popsicle sticks. The Popsicle sticks are going to allow us to connect the motors together, make sure they're lined up straight and hold them in place, and they're also going to give us a way to attach our batteries. Now we're going to measure the distance. It looks like we need about 2 and 1/2 inches. The Popsicle sticks need to be about 2 and 1/2 inches long, and we can just trim the Popsicle stick down using that nipper pliers that we've got. And so it'll be a really quick job to trim that. And so once it's 2 and 1/2 inches long, we'll cut another piece the exact same. And those are going to allow us to connect our motors and, like I said, keep everything lined up. So those are going to be our motor mounts. The Popsicle sticks are kind of nice too because the hot glue doesn't cool right away on it. It takes it a second, so it gives us a little bit of time to position everything. If you put the hot glue right on the motor, it will cool right away, and sometimes it's hard to readjust things or to line things up if you need to. So we're just going to trim the edge of that Popsicle stick off there. Make sure it's nice and clean. And we want to, again, make sure that our motors are lined up perfectly straight. So we're just positioning that Popsicle stick on top to make sure everything is the way it needs to be. Now it's important that the Popsicle stick does not stick out past the edge of the motor. If it does, you're going to have some trouble getting the wheel to turn. So the motors are actually magnetic, and they're attracted to the metal ruler. So the ruler is actually holding the motors in place. Now you can see the two contacts there that I just pointed out. You want to make sure those are facing down. That's going to be really important because if those are facing up when you connect the Popsicle stick, you won't be able to wire the motor, so you'll have to take the Popsicle stick off. So we're going to put the hot glue on the Popsicle stick, not on the motors, again, because it gives us just a little bit more time for the hot glue to cool. And then we'll flip the Popsicle stick over, and we'll press it in place. Now be a little careful here because the hot glue is hot, and it can burn your fingers if it gets on it really quick. But you should be fine. Again, make sure the motors are lined up against the ruler, and if they are, then you should have a nice straight line and the motor should be perfectly lined up. It's important to use a metal ruler because it does attract the motors and it will hold them in place. Specifically a steel ruler not just-- an aluminum ruler won't do that obviously because it's not magnetic. So we're trimming our wires down to about a 6-inch length. We'll need four 6-inch wires. We'll need four, two red ones and two black ones. And then we're going to strip the ends off of the wires. And just take about a quarter of an inch of the insulation off the end. And we're going to use our needle-nose pliers and twist those wires in a loop. And then we're going to just bend that loop slightly. And the reason we want to bend that loop slightly is that it's going to help it to stick into the motor. The motor has a little connection that will allow us to-- that's going to basically grab that wire and hold it in place. But we kind of want to make sure that it holds it in place. So when we push the wire in, it should fit pretty snugly. So that one didn't fit too snugly, so we're pulling it out and going to adjust that loop so that it pushes against-- There's a little metal tab on the motor. And we want to make sure that melt tab grabs that wire and holds it in place. It should be pretty snug. You might even want to have it snug enough that you can push the-- you can use the small screwdriver to push it in place because you don't want the wires to fall out obviously. So we're going to just repeat the same thing again for the other side. OK, so once we've got both wires connected we're going to take some hot glue and we'll repeat the same step that we did for the Popsicle stick on the other side. And this is just going to help to hold the motors together and keep those wires in place. So we want to push that down, and we'll hold it on there for a few minutes until it is completely hardened. Make sure that the hot glue has turned a milky color before you let go of it, otherwise it won't be totally in place. And you want to make sure you push down pretty hard on that to get it to line up right. OK, so now we're going to take our batteries and we're going to fit them in place. So we'll take our battery protectors off. And we want the two batteries to line up kind of in the center of the motors, like that. And we need them to line up so that they-- If the batteries are sort of pushed off to one side or another, the weight won't be balanced as evenly and so the bot won't move as smoothly. OK, so that's what it should look like. We should have one battery facing one direction and the other facing the other direction. And so what we're going to do is-- it's important that all of the different parts of are flat on the table. So you want to make sure everything is pushed down flat on the table. So this is going to mean that it's really important that those motors were lined up right. Because if they're not, they won't sit flat and your wheels won't be true when you turn your bot on. OK, so we're going to put some hot glue on our Popsicle stick, and we're going to go about an inch and a half long there with our hot glue bead. And we want to make sure that hot glue bead is in the center of that Popsicle stick. And once we've got that lined up, we want to make sure that everything is flat. And we'll push our battery against it, and we'll squeeze all of the different parts together once it's lined up. There we go. So we can just give it a good, hard squeeze and make sure everything is flat and pushed down. Make sure that the motors aren't up at an angle and that the batteries not up at an angle. We want everything perfectly flush and flat. And it's easy to do it wrong, but the good thing about hot glue is you can always pop the stuff apart and redo it if you need to. So, again, we're going to do the other side the exact same way. We'll put about an inch and half bead of a hot glue, and we want that right in the center of our Popsicle stick. Then, again, we're going to try and make sure that that battery is lined up right in the center of our motors, directly across from the other battery. We'll squeeze it together. Squeeze everything together and make sure everything is pushed down. If you have a partner, you can have the partner make sure that the batteries and the motors are all pushed flat against the table. Really important that they are flat, again, because it's going to make it so much easier to attach the double stick tape from the bottom of the tap light to the top of the batteries. OK. So that is what our motor mount and battery assembly should look like.