Over the past few months Sawppy and I have been attending events in the greater Los Angeles area spreading our love of DIY Mars rovers. But now it's time to go to the flagship Maker Faire Bay Area 2019 event. This will be a multi-day event away from home and that brings in a new set of concerns.

The first and most obvious concern is the multi-day length. Every previous public appearance was no more than an hour's drive away from home, where I had all of my tools and parts to repair any problems at the end of the day. I could pack some tools and replacement parts but I can't pack everything. It would be sad if Sawppy broke partway through the event in a way I couldn't repair. On the upside, Maker Faire Bay Area would be the event to be where I could borrow or buy tools and components. Or even time on someone's 3D printer to print replacement parts!

The second concern is the trip itself. I typically place Sawppy on a car seat however it can fit, and didn't worry overly much about placement because the ride is short. Now Sawppy is looking at over six hours of driving, with associated six hours of bumps from the road. Would all the repetitive stress break something on Sawppy? To help alleviate this problem, I used my luggage suitcase to fill in the rear seat footwell creating a relatively flat surface for all six wheels to sit at even heights. To constrain Sawppy's front-back movement, the battery tray and router was removed so everything fit cozily between the front and rear seat backs. To constrain side-to-side movement, the rear seat center armrest was lowered so Sawppy fit cozily between it and the door.

Over seven hours later, Sawppy arrived in the bay area and I was eager to see if everything still worked. My quick test was to reinstall the battery tray, router, and power up Sawppy to verify all components functioned. I was very relieved to see Sawppy start driving around as designed, seemingly unaffected by the long trip and ready to meet the crowds of Maker Faire.

https://twitter.com/SawppyRover/status/1129074268975714304