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I'm just using an electric (non-geared!) motor to wind up some string and raise a mass to hit a switch. That works, I guess. I'm not using any screws or gears, just plain old electric potential.

How much mass have you guys successfully raised with your balloon? I've got as much as 6.9 grams up. That's a lot of points. ^_^

Yeah, I'm using a cage sort of thing with blocks on the inside, and pulling it up with a geared motor and string with pulley. I strategically placed some copper tape to connect them all together when the cage falls into upright position. The tricky part was getting the blocks to not entirely stack u...

I was planning on using a thermal cutoff switch, that I coincidentally also got at American Science and Surplus. We're probably just going to drop it on some ice and cool it down that way, using it as a "not" gate for the next step.

My IL regionals just went very well. Got a perfect score of 550, with around .2 seconds above the ideal time. YES! State is coming up soon.

Um... Well, the problem is that my photoresistor resistance is too high, even in high-light conditions. So I'm putting them in parallel with a lower resistance, after experimenting with some variable resistors. But I figured out why it's not working: somehow little bits of iron got in the gap of my ...

Okay, I'm using 2 photocells in parallel with a smaller resistance in series in order to activate a relay.
But it's not working too well. So I'm troubleshooting lately.

But I have all the tasks complete now! I'm excited for regionals in 1.5 weeks.

I requested two clarifications a week ago, and haven't gotten responses for either of them!
Where exactly did you guys send your clarification requests? I did to the people listed on my states Olympiad website. I guess that was the wrong place?

Okay, well the minimum rating on it is 1.5v. I've tested this thing over two dozen times, and it hasn't burnt out yet. I think I'm good.
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Okay, I'm nice now.

I go to a small-ish Catholic school, so my team is lucky to scrape together 12 people for our two invitationals. That's our entire team How many invitationals per season do you guys go to? My team went to Loyola and Crystal Lake Central (both in IL). How large/small is your competitor base? With the...