The geodesic sphere will be constructed from cold rolled steel tubing. This is the cheapest construction method that will afford sufficient strength for occasional climbers. Stainless Steel is an optional visual bonus but requires roughly 3 times larger budget. Vertexes are 4" tubing slices with 1.75" tubing as the stubs for the 2" tubing edges that connect the nodes. All edges will be smooth ground to encourage touch and minimize injury. Attachment points for vertex/edges junctions are set with fasteners so final assembly should be rapid and require minimal tools.
The electronics assembly will be custom design PC boards and circuits based on my latest proven designs. The capacitive touch sensor has been used in many of my sculptures now and provides a completely weather and dust proof button effect. The boards are planned to be printed by a small company in Oregon instead of offshore. Actual electronics assembly will be done by myself and a local crew.
The lexan sheet wlll be circle cut into 4" lenses 2 for each vertex, then drilled to place the fasteners. The outside lenses will be recessed to prevent damage as they roll on the ground. Laser Cut is possibly a significant optimal method and will be investigated.
Recharging of the batteries will by solar with the PV panel mounted inside the sphere with steel cables removed at nite. Charge from the PV Panel fed to a charge controller, which floats a small 12v ballast battery. This battery then drives a 12/5v DC/DC converter fed to each node with a charging plug on squid harnesses. The ChargeController, battery, DC/DC, and fuse blocks will be mounted in a playa-proof box that serves as the "base" for the RR (with marker LEDs for nite).
The Lithium batteries to be used are recycled ones i pull from discarded laptop battery packs. These are put through a test cycle by a custom circuit i designed and are used in many of my sculptures. These batteries, CRG18650, are usually $10 each new, so thats $600 savings.