Week 5&6 (February 8-19 2021)
This week we worked on the hardware assembly and began building the casing for the project. In week 4 we printed off the 3D screw mechanism, however it was a bit too big so we had to reprint it so that it could properly fit into the PVC pipe and dispense the food. After verifying that all of the parts fit together as expected this week, the acrylic laser cut parts could begin to be formed into the food storage container and electrical casing. This was done bit-by-bit to allow the acrylic solvent glue time to set so that the structure of the casing would be strong.
Once the casing was glued together, the rest of the assembly could be finalized starting with pressing the PVC pipe into the bottom opening in the food storage container. The opening was left slightly big and then the PVC pipe was press fit in place using foam adhesive inserts. This allowed for modifications in its placement so that the screw could be perfectly aligned. Next, the screw was mounted to the servo motor using an attachment piece that came with the motor, and the motor was mounted to a 3D printed stand, also by doing a press fit with foam adhesive inserts.
Week 6 was reading week so we primarily focused on the hardware assembly during these two weeks and will continue working on FYDP after the break is over. We will begin integrating the electrical and hardware parts slowly but that will mostly be the focus for next week.
What we accomplished this week:
- Reprinting 3D Screw
- Hardware assembly
Week 7&8 (February 22-March 5 2021)
Wow this term is going by fast! After a week off for reading week we are back and ready to go full force. We are in the home stretch and we are beginning to test the sub-components to ensure they work correctly before integrating them all together. The hardware assembly is done so now we have to integrate the electrical and calibrate the sensors accordingly to ensure that the correct amount of food will be dispensed.
During these weeks we began integrating the electrical components into the system and tested the motor to see if it would work when dispensing the food. There were some hiccups along the way as the pipe wasn't securely fastened in and fell apart when we first tried to run the motor, however with some extra glue and modifications we were able to fix it. The motor seems to be working well and the system is working as expected at this point in time.
During these weeks we also calibrates the code to dispense the correct amounts so that when a user says "2 cups" it is actually 2 cups being dispensed and also recorded audio so that the correct audio recording is being played via one-way communication.
Once the system is fully built and running as expected, we also have to test our constraints to make sure that we hit everything we initially laid out. This includes the weight of the system, capacity of the food storage container, height, and dispensing options.
For the next few weeks we plan to:
-Finalize the build and any remaining calibrations
-Begin creating the demo and marketing videos
-Create the poster board for the symposium
- Verify constraints and criteria
What we accomplished this week:
- Began looking at poster boards online
- Integrated subcomponents
- Calibrated sensors and code for dispensing
- Recorded one-way communication
- Tested motor and fine-tuned hardware assembly