JIMMY WATSON - His mother, Marion, teases her son about his dreams to build a large robot ant with a drawing of her son riding on the ant's back. Then it comes true.

<< CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9 - JIMMY BEGINS ASSEMBLING THE DINOBOT

Jimmy could not believe it, his dad had built him a shed, especially for his giant hexapod project, and his mother was not phased in the slightest. He was out in the shed sorting out tools, when he heard the doorbell alarm on his laptop, intermingle with the same message to a different tune on his Samsung.

Jimmy ran through the kitchen and hall as fast as he could to the front door. Nearly coming a cropper on the slippery Chinese carpet in the hall as he braked.

There on the porch was a delivery man. DPD in bold red letters on the side of a large white van.

"Morning. Delivery for Mr Tim Watson. Several quite heavy packages."

The driver smiled, handing Jimmy one of the smaller cardboard boxes.

"Oh, thank you Mr. Dad's not in, do you need a signature?"

"No lad, just a picture. This is the right address?" The driver showed the label to Jimmy.

"Yes. That's right."

"I know that son, been delivering here for many years. It's in our database."

The driver sorted out several more larger and heavier boxes in the back of his van. Heaving and shoving them onto the back tailgate. Then lowering the tailgate to about one meter, when he deftly hopped off.

"This takes the grunt out of deliveries." He smiled at Jimmy, as he picked up a large box with plastic web straps crossing on each face.

He lowered the package on the porch step. Jimmy went to move it, but it was heavier than it looked. The driver laughed.

"Don't worry son, I'll shift it for you. Where do you want it."

"Well, they have to go into the shed in the back garden. But, I'll sort that out."

"Not a problem lad. Is that your workshop?"

The driver looked down the side passage into the back garden. The gates had been left open for the expected deliveries.

"Yes, it is."

The driver did not look that strong, but walked the cardboard packages down the drive into the back garden and onto the path outside Jimmy's rather large wooden workshop. It took three trips.

"Nice shed lad. Who built that?"

The driver marveled at the size and construction. It was the best shed he'd seen.

"Believe it or not, my Mum and Dad put it together. Dad designed it."

"Your Mum, Marion isn't it? Thought she was an artist. She taught me sometimes in Hailsham."

"I know, incredible. Took to the power tools like a duck to water. Called it industrial art."

Just then the house phone rang. "Excuse me a moment Mr."

It was another delivery driver, he was a little lost. Jimmy gave him directions.

Sorry about that, seems I've another delivery coming in a few minutes.

"Better let you get on then young man."

"Thank you for your help Mr."

The DPD driver smiled and waved, as he walked off to continue on his rounds.

Jimmy was dying to open the cardboard boxes, when he saw a Luton van pull up outside his house. He forgot about the boxes for a moment, running up to the white box van. Two men got out and opened the roller-shutter door at the rear.

"Delivery for Mr Watson."

"That's us," said Jimmy.

"From Aluminium Warehouse?"

"Yes, we ordered some alloy tubing."

The men pulled out three large diameter cardboard tubes. One was five meters long and ten centimeters in diameter. The other two were four meters long and twelve centimeters in diameter. They had white plastic end inserts. Jimmy had never seen such long cardboard packaging.

"Where do you want them mate?"

"If you wouldn't mind, just along that drive, in front of the shed please."

The two men deftly shouldered the long tubes, walked to the shed and placed them with the other cardboard boxes.

"Looks like Christmas down there."

"You could say." Jimmy smiled to himself, I hope so. "Thanks to AW, incredibly fast delivery. Only ordered two days ago."

Just then, a Parcel Force van pulled up.

"You've another delivery. See you mate."

"Thanks again," said Jimmy, waving goodbye. Marveling at the neat cardboard tubes, carefully closed with duct tape on the ends. itching to see inside.

Jimmy was on a high. This was an avalanche of deliveries. He'd ordered so they would arrive together, but heck, that had never worked before. There was always some delays. Sometimes weeks, if packages were separated.

The Royal Mail chap heaved a small cardboard package.

"Heavy this one. What's in it I wonder?"

"Stainless steel fixings and stuff from Screwfix."

The delivery man saw the stack of cardboard deliveries at the end of the drive.

"With that lot?"

"Yes please."

"Looks like Christmas."

"Funny you should say that. It is for Christmas in a way."

Finally, he was alone with the packages. Heart pounding, he tore into one of the first boxes to be delivered, first of all carefully cutting the adhesive tapes with a pair of scissors. 

Wow. Inside there were smaller boxes of parts, plastic bags full of machined fittings and computer parts, small motors and gearboxes.

In another box, there were two motors and speed controller sets, chain sets and chains. Jimmy had ordered two electric bike conversion kits and a large lithium iron battery. He had not ordered any steel, because he's scavenged some discarded pushbikes, only fit for the scrap yard. These needed to be cannibalized for the bearings and hinges. The handlebars would come in handy.

In the third box was a radio control set, transmitter, or handset and receiver. Commonly called the Tx and Rx. The Rx is the small black box that goes on the model, that receives signals, or commands, from the operator. Himself. Making the robot into a remotely controlled drone for any function not controlled autonomously, using pre-programmed sequences in microchips, or via the AI software. Though, only short range for operator controlled movements like walking forward, turning and reversing. A mile or two in RC aircraft. The Tx is the fun part with the twin gimbal joystick levers and other switches or knobs. His was a racing ten channel masterpiece. Once he knew how to use it.

The best and cheapest way into radio control is to buy a drone quad-copter. They cost around £50 pounds, even including a camera. Jimmy used one of these to get the hang of thinking spatially, taking off and landing, using the lever controls carefully, or crash and burn. His Dad bought him those toys years ago. Other toys such as radio controlled cars and JCB diggers are also cheap to buy and useful for getting your eye in. When you stop crashing into furniture, and can park accurately, you have sufficient control. Jimmy used a GoPro clone camera, but there are other small mobile camera boards to see what the robot sees, on an iPad. You can clip iPads to many transmitter sets. Or, use a mobile phone app. Jimmy could not afford an iPad at this stage.

In films like Jurassic Park or Jurassic World, the animatronic special effect dinosaurs are controlled by multiple operators, eyes, jaws and head movements.

Jimmy needed to upscale the already large frame and legs by a factor of approximately ten. This is where he needed welding and fabrication skills. One reason he liked metalwork at school.

His Mum showed him how to sculpt large objects, and he had worked out how to use epoxy and polyester resins with chopped strand matting and woven cloth to take a mould. His fascination was with carbon fibre, because of its strength.

The components were becoming rather spread out, taking up a lot of room. They needed to be shelved or put into marked drawers. Jimmy had gotten over his initial excitement. It was now a logistics and project site management exercise. Meaning that the alloy tubing should be put into the workshop, in case it rained. England being famous for erratic weather, and sudden showers.

Jimmy closed the large wooden gates to the drive. No more deliveries, thankfully, he thought to himself. That gave him privacy.

...

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