"A small portion of the parts could be bought off the shelf. They only cost a few yuan on Pinduoduo. Some other parts had to be custom-made," Yuan Tiangang explained.
"At first, we wanted to buy a secondhand Tuozhu Printer, but we were afraid we wouldn't have enough money. So we went online and looked for shops that sold small 3D-printed models, asking whether they accepted custom orders. We contacted more than twenty shops before choosing the cheapest one. We sent them the files, they printed them, and then shipped them over. It only cost a few hundred yuan."
"There were also some electronic components. We bought custom-made parts for the crucial components, while for some secondary parts, we simply bought cheap electronic junk and took it apart and reassembled it. It worked well enough."
Yuan Tiangang honestly explained everything for quite a while, looking like a criminal confessing the details of his crime.
When he finished, he gazed pitifully at the two principals.
The two principals gave him a meaningful once-over.
"You know how to write the software too?" Xiang Xiaotong asked.
"No." Yuan Tiangang shook his head. "I don't understand the principles, but I can roughly figure out how to use it, which data should be imported where, and what range the values need to be in."
"Most of the programs were written by AI. I would post the programs on forums and let professional programmers discuss them... They would start arguing. I'd read what they were arguing about, judge who had better technical skills, and then make the changes according to that person's suggestions."
Song He nodded. "That's quite a shortcut. Why didn't you choose to study properly from the beginning? Was it simply a case of seeking quick results?"
"We really did hope to finish it