User:Jake Gallagher/enes100/projecttwo/weeklynarrative

Project Preference
1.Beat Bearing

2.Automatic Shaker Table

3.Makerbot

Problem Statement
My group will be building a beat bearing project that a previous group has designed.

Project Plan
The next four weeks my group should be able to have the board built and hopefully connected to the arduino. When we place a ball on the washers, the arduino will send a signal to the piano to play a note.

Week 1 Narrative
My task for this week was to read the CDIO report page and get a full understanding of it so that we could determine what we need to do for week two. I read the CDIO report and became very confused due to it having many failed attempts mixed in with the successful attempts. I was also confused on what needed to be done next. I knew that in order to get the best idea of what needed to be done I should contact the previous group members. On Friday I met up with Olivia, who worked with the MIDI board. She showed me how the code worked and where I could learn how to write more code for arduino, under the "helpful links" heading. She also told me that their group had worked on separate tasks but never combined them together. I learned that we also need a keyboard from the back room and a MIDI cable to connect the keyboard to the MIDI board. I talked to Mr. Forester about the project for a short period of time and he suggested to go to one of his more advanced classes and ask for help with the coding. I looked for the MIDI board but could not find it, which means that we might possibly have to solder another MIDI board. I also came up with a couple new ideas, where we could possibly get bigger washers so the ball won't roll off the washer if we have screws on them. I think this would make it look more professional if we did not have wires wrapped around the the washers like the previous group had. I also learned how the arduino code worked and put notes in my notebook so if one of my group members wants to work with the arduino I can show them how to.



This is the picture of their previous design that did not work, but I think we can make it work if the washers were a bit bigger, smaller screws, or a combination.

Another idea I had was to take a router and route the bottom instead of gluing the strips to the bottom like the picture below.

.



This is actually a template for the board, which would come in handy!

The next step for Tuesday's class will be to separate our group of four people into two separate groups, one on the ardiuno and one on the board.

Week 2 Narrative
After class on Monday I went to Mr. Forester and talked to him for an hour and a half about the project and what exactly needed to be done for it. He then made another wiki page for our project. On Friday, John and I came in to complete as much of the board as we could. The first thing John and I did was watch a video on how to use acrylic glue on plexiglass, because Mr. Forester told us it was unlike regular glue. We then Sorted the runners that go on the board using the template the previous group made. This was tricky because the previous group left too many runners that were all different lengths and widths. Then we Clamped the correct runners onto the board using the template that the previous group made to space between the runners. Then we tested the acrylic on small pieces of plexiglass. We found out through testing that if we put too much pressure there would be a lot of bubbles between the plexiglass, if we did not put enough or any at all than the plexiglass would not stick together at all. John glued while I applied small amount of pressure to the runners. Then we made a template for making the washers. The washers were 1 inch so I put a line at 1/2 inch and marked across them. John cut the washers in half using a dremel tool on the lines that I marked. We ran out of washers so that is what stopped us for the day. We know that we need to go out and get more washers for next time. We only have about half of the washers needed to complete the board. We also are considering making the template that the previous group better, because the current one will not work. They made the spaces for the washers too big.

 File:Close up with board and template.jpeg|close up of the board and the template to show tight fit File:Board with template.jpeg|board with template before glue File:Applying epoxy.jpeg|applying epoxy File:Clamped board.jpeg|The board is clamped and drying File:Glued Board.jpeg|The board has been glued and no clamps are needed because it is dry. File:Plain washer.jpeg| File:Washer Template.jpeg|washer template File:Washer layed out.jpeg| 

This video is the epoxy being applied to the runners. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HnUrzx0_uI

This is a video of John cutting the washers with a dremel tool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyUCq039OEk

Week 3 Narrative
This week my task was to improve the makerbot template, drill holes in the board, cut washers, and wire the negative washers. John and I thought improving the template was going to be easy, but it was much more complicated than we had intended. The first step was to measure what space needed to be taken out of the washers. For the first template we made the circle in the middle bigger to see if this could solve the problem. We also cut the rest of the template out and only printed for the first washer so we did not have to wait a hour for the whole board to print. It was good that we only did one washer because the first sample template was wrong. It turned out that we should have kept the diameter of the circle in the middle the same. For the second template we changed the diameter of the circle in the middle of the washer back to what it was before and reduced the space from the edge of the outside of the washer to the inside of the template from 10mm to 8mm. This made it so there was almost no space between the washer and the template which is what we wanted. We printed a second template to see if this would solve our problem. While the second template was being done on the 3D printer John worked on cutting more washers while I worked on how we were going to wire the board. After the sample template was done we concluded that it was our best design. We used the second sample template on the previous groups sample board to see if it was a good fit. Our second sample template worked well but we were unsure if it had connectivity. We had Akshay show us how to use the voltage detector. Our sample template showed that we had connectivity. We knew that now we needed to print a full template for the board. The engineer room was closing so we could not work on the template any longer. John redesigned the template at his house so that I could come in the next day and print it.

The next day I came in and printed the template with gray PLA. The template that John sent me had a problem with the extrusion with all the washer holes. I tried to fix the problem at the school computer but it would not let me because we were using different versions of the google sketchup software. Lucky John was at home and able to extrude the holes on the template and resend it to me within a couple of minutes. The second file that John sent me worked well except for the first hole in the template. Every time that we tried to extrude that hole it would extrude the whole board. We knew that it was the same hole as our second sample template so we used the second sample template to lay out the first hole on the board. After I printed the part at school I was showing it to someone and they accidentally broke a part off of it. I tried using epoxy to glue it back together but it did not work on the PLA. I then used hot glue and it worked much better but was not the perfect fix. If we work on this for the next project we will further improve this template so that the first washer has a hole in the template.

Next, John and I worked in his garage on wiring the board. First, we had to figure out how we wanted to wire the board. We had a few ideas from Friday but we also had some difficulty getting the wire to stay in the holes on the board while having the template under the board. We figured our best option was to use the template to drill where the holes were going to go. We used a marker and put a dot where each hole was going to go and then moved the template out from under the board and drilled each hole. Now we had to decide how the wires would be connected together. We knew that the negative side could be connected all together for each row and then connected all together at the end. We used the drill bits that the previous group left but it was too hard to get two wires in one whole so we had to get new drill bits so that two wires would fit through the hole to go on the washer. I stripped each wire while John hooked them together. After we made four rows of wires we put a group of wires through the first row to see if we would get a complete circuit and we thankfully did.

We were finally to the step where we needed to wrap the wires around each washer. It was hard to get both wires around the washer while putting super glue on it. We did an entire row and then checked for connectivity, which we were successful. We then followed this step by doing it for the three other rows that followed. Each row worked well, and we were able to get connectivity through all washers. We did not glue the washers down to the board because we want to get the positive side on and make sure it works well before anything becomes permanent.

 File:Image (14).jpeg|Here is a view to see that the diameter of the circle is a perfect fit. The gap between the outside of the washer and the template is not a proper fit. File:Image (15).jpeg|This is a comparison from the old template with the new sample template in dark gray. The new template still needed to be re-worked. File:Image (16).jpeg|This is the second sample template that was a perfect fit for the washers. File:Image (13).jpeg|This was the final design for the template that we used to wire the board. There were problems with sketchup when we tried to extrude the first hole for the washers. We used the second sample template for the first holes for the washers. File:Image (3).jpeg|The wires sticking out of the drilled holes. File:Image (2).jpeg|Takes a very long time to get each wire through the hole while holding everything in place. File:Image (7).jpeg|This is the board with all of the negative washers wired. 

Below is a video of how we drilled the holes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTbcQ7UVPfg

Below is a video showing a complete circuit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9xbzYueD0U

Week 4 Narrative
This week my task was to check for continuity and work on the CDIO report. John and I also fixed the board where some washers had fallen off. After carrying the board around from place to place some washers had come loose and had to be trashed because they had superglue on them. This caused the wires to be short in some places which created a huge problem because we had already wired the board. We had to come up with a fix that would allow us to not relocate any of the wires. The best decision was to strip other wires and wrap them around the existing wire that was still coming up through the hole. We also had to cut more washers to make up for the washers that were no longer any good. I cut the rest of the washers that we needed for the positive side of the board after John marked them. Once we had all the washers in place we were able to run the continuity test for the negative side for each row. We were successful with each row and washer. It did take a little moving of the prongs at times but there was connection through all negative washers. This week I also had to work on the CDIO report. I tried to use a drop down bar like Mr. Forester did in the previous groups but it ended up deleting everything below it. The first few drop downs worked very well but after so many something in the code makes it not show what is underneath. John and I decided that the drop downs were not worth it for now and to not include any drop downs so that people can just scroll right to what they want to see. As our project becomes longer we will most likely need to incorporate drop downs because there will be too much information for someone to easily find. I learned from my last CDIO report that I was not organized enough with the page. This time I am using other previous groups examples and incorporating them into this CDIO report. For example I am using the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level headers to organize the information into different steps.

 File:Image (18).jpeg|This is a photo of the stripped wire that will be put on the wire that is too small. 

Below is a video of the first row continuity test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTvwIAPeA9s

Below is a video of the second row continuity test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m85GAHDxjlQ

Below is a video of the third row continuity test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnRGDPMG7_0

Below is a video of the fourth row continuity test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCtI4hbFYxA