Assignment 18 Project Development

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How the Thing was planned and how it worked out

Favourite beverage of the Assignment

"No plan survives the first contact with the enemy" - Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke
In my case "Every machine works als long as you don't need it" - Rene Niewianda
Or "With great urgency comes with great shipment time" - Rene Niewianda

This was the plan I made in the Applications and Implications Assignment.
    • Till end of April: Finish the construction sketches
    • Last week of April: Build the Main cube
    • First week of Mai: wire the LED
    • Second week of Mai: Make the electronics and start programming
    • Third week of Mai: Make the base
    • Last week of Mai: Wrap up the programming
    • June: Fix whats broken and assemble everything
The first two points worked well and I finished al little bit early but then happened some things I should have foreseen: I lost one week to university stuff like learning for exams and doing some projects for other lectures.
Another week was lost to the preparation of a Workshop that took place at the chair.
Then the filament i wanted to use arrived a little late and i had to basically print everything the weekend before I had to present. But in the end Managed to build everything and got i working quite well.
Another thing that took quite some time was my problem with the power source I fried 3 ATMegas till I noticed that my power plug was damaged and produced voltage spikes when too much power is drawn. After I changed the plug everything worked fine.
Further I broke one of the mirrors I could not replace



What I learned

When tackling a big project:
  • I have to order everything way before I need it
  • Check that every machine works properly beforehand
  • Have replacement parts
  • Take university events into consideration while planning
  • Plan buffer times so you have enough even if something goes wrong
  • Do not slack off till the project is done but:
  • Plan in some free time so you can recharge and get some distance to problems that may occur (which helps to solve them)
In the end I was able to deliver the Final project in time although the planing ahead did not work as well as I planned.
The last few days I used the time management technique that all students love sleep less work more and get shit done at all costs.


Just black tea to stay awake and maybe to hunt some Wyvern