Assignment 14

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Mechanical & Machine Design

This week we were asked to do a group assignment which is building a machine. Building the machine includes doing the mechanical design (making it mechanically functional) and also the machine design (making the machine work with software).
Ideas for our machine
So our first step was brainstorming for a good machine idea. I came up with the following ideas:
  • Noodle machine: As a young child my parents had a noodle machine and we used to make wonderful self-made pasta. They were lot more tasty than the one from the supermarket. That machine is quite old, heavy and sometimes does not produce products as it used to do. Having a especially lighter machine would be very nice.

    • Typical noodle machine, usually very heavy.

  • Signing Machine: Many people encounter this problem, they need to sign a lot of documents. Presumably this is a task people would be happy to be easier and if they could save time by letting it do by a machine.
  • Camera Slider:Taking pictures is done by mostly everybody and many people enjoy taking pictures in their freetime. Some might call themselves semi-professional. One aspect of photography are time-lapse-captures . As I myself always wanted to get one of those camera sliders but never wanted to spend so much money for it. So why do not build one by yourself?

    Camera time-lapse slider in action.

Constructing the machine
We decided to build the camera time-lapse slider for our group assignment. Before starting to build our machine we brainstormed and sketched ideas how to construct the machine. We decided to build three axes into the machine:
  • One axis moved the camera sideways
  • Rotation axis
  • Tilt axis
Detailed documentation of the designing and constructing process you can see on the group project page.
Electronics and Programming
After designing and constructing the machine was finished, we needed to make the camera be movable along the axes. For programming we used an Arduino Uno board, plugged into and FabScan shield and using step motor drivers. Again, detailed information of this can be found here: group project page.
To give a quick overview the tasks I did during constructing, electronics and programming:
  • Help finding parts that were already available in the lab after brainstorming and come up with basic ideas if our sketches are possible
  • Getting parts we needed for the machine
  • Designing lowest part of the camera platform
  • Assemble Arduino, FabScan shield, motor drivers including crimping and connecting the motors
  • Program in Arduino IDE to make the basic movement possible