User:Evanm1993/ENES-100/project 2

Week1 Narrative
I added all the documentation of the four week period to the project page and then I worked on the sealing of the grommets that were leaking. They initially did not leak on the first trial but maybe they got loosened on the second trial. Its good this problem came up now so we can fix it. This just shows that more than one test has to be done to make sure something is fine. I added epoxy to the grommets and the aquarium pump wire to close wherever the water was leaking from.

good job on the team documentation ... I need to work on getting all the old stuff on there .. thanks ... keep testing the water part ... need video of the whole thing working .. operations manual built ... maybe the operations manual says not to pick up the device once it has ice water or hot water in it ... need to check with actual hot and cold water .. the temperature change make make the seals more difficult ... 10/10/30 --1sfoerster (discuss • contribs) 14:23, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Week2 Narrative
This week I took home an air compressor to test drawing a vacuum but the air compressor wouldn't start. This was an expected outcome due to not enough power being sent to the motor. The next step for this would be to find another air compressor or fix this one. I also took apart the Vernier Photogate to test whether or not it would work after taking it apart. We can stick the plastic body of the Photogate into the core control tube so the main components have to be taken out and applied somewhere in the tube to automate the core control. The Photogate was tested and it worked even after taking it apart. The light and sensor just have to align. I could only test as far as the wires could reach so more testing could be done later after extending the wires.


 * 10/10/30 .. very good --1sfoerster (discuss • contribs) 22:40, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

Week3 Narrative
This week I spliced the wires of the photogate to extend them. I soldered the connection points to make sure they were secure. I did this after there was a problem with the photogate not responding and the solution was soldering the connections. I also wrapped the wires with shrinking tube to make them secure.


 * please delete thumb in the future .. 10/10/20 ... good, still works .. what is next? --1sfoerster (discuss • contribs) 15:17, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Week4 Narrative
My task this week was to connect the Photogate to the tube and to learn how to use Arduino to control turning on and off all electrical functions. I ran into something I did not account for with the Photogate while trying to install it. After drilling the holes and lining them up I noticed that the receiver side of the Photogate also had to be extended so it could fit through the drilled hole. The next steps for the Photogate is to cut off the receiver end and solder more wire to it so it can fit into the hole. From there it can be attached easily to the tube. I have also been learning how to use Arduino from these tutorials. I know an if function will be used to detect the laser breaking and a loop for how long the power will be turned on, but I do not know how to get feed back from the photogate laser being broken. That will be the next step and it will probably involve using the hacked photogate cable setup that already exists.


 * Written as a report, learning about the arduino should not be mentioned unless you are going to improve a tutorial ... engineers are in a catch-22 or double bind when it comes to getting paid to learn ... you need to emphasize the next steps with bullet points ... that is the real fruit of your work above .. 10/10/20 --1sfoerster (discuss • contribs) 16:00, 8 April 2014 (UTC)