19. Project development

Assignment:

• Complete your final project, tracking your progress:
  • What tasks have been completed, and what tasks remain?
  • What’s working? what’s not?
  • What questions need to be resolved?
  • What will happen when?
  • What have you learned?

What tasks have been completed, and what tasks remain?

Since the schedule changes caused by corona virus, I have completed all tasks and my final project lamp is working by the time completing this week assignment.

This whole process was way more time consuming than I had anticipated since I was not able to work in Oulu with FabAcademy group. 3D design (lamp shade and stand) did not take that much time. I used approximately two work days with each to design and manufacture them (exluding brain storming). The electronics part instead took much longer. Designing the board took about 50 hours (including TinkerCad simulation and testing the code using Arduino Nano) even though I tried to keep the board as simple as possible. Learning FlatCAM and making the file for the milling machine took about 10 hours. Milling and soldering was done in one day, taking approx. 10 hours. Coding the board to function properly was about three day job. I think that the whole process took about 140-150 hours.

If I had been able to work in Oulu I think I would have been able to design a better board and manufacture the board and make the code work in much shorter time.

What’s working? what’s not?

I managed to make the lamp work the way I wanted; the colour of the neopixel strip light is controlled by ultrasonic sensor data and all parts fit together. Wiring inside the lamp is very neat and tidy and shade fits perfectly inside the stand.

What questions need to be resolved?

Not any questions to answer about my final project. There are some points of improvement in the board design that I have described in “What have you learned” chapter and if I was starting this process from the beginning, those points would need to be resolved. It would also be nice to add a light sensor so that the brightness of the lamp is determined by the lightning in the surrounding space.

Concidering implementing this work to our Mobile Fab Lab workshops it needs to be figured out which parts of the design process are included.

What will happen when?

All done with the final project. I think this project could be included into our Mobile Fab Lab workshops in a few years once we have had time to develop our pilot workshops the way that everything works smoothly.

What have you learned?

A lot! About input devices; how to use data that is produced using a distance sensor signal and how to control an output device based on the data produced by input device. I learned how to use serial monitor and serial communication, how to map input sensor data to control the output device the we I want and how to define pin numbers. I’ve learned how to design my own board, how to mill it and how to solder (all thigs I had never done before). Modelling is nowadays pretty smooth process since I have done that quite a lot during weekly assignments. In addition to Fusion 360 I have learned how to use Inkscape, GIMP, Eagle and FlatCAM. And of course the softwares that are used to control different machines.

My understanding of digital fabrication world is expanded greatly and I feel like I’m better prepared for my future work in our Mobile Fab Lab. I have gained a lot of confidence to design and execute digital fabrication workshops.

At first I had an idea about a lamp that is controlled by photo transistor signal. I changed my plan to have an ultrasonic distance sensor since we had those in my home town Fab Lab in Tampere. Controlling lamp based on light sensor is something I could implement in the future into the Mobile Fab Lab workshop. We can think about adding the electronics part when we have first tested laser cutting workshop. I may also have to make some changes to the lamp shade design so that the lamp would not necessary need a lamp stand.

I programmed my chip in Arduino board and attached the programmed microcontroller to my own board intead of having a programming pin in my own board. It was not convenient to do it that way but I managed to make my lamp work so I accepted it. In addition to having a pin for programmin the board, I also should have added FTDI header connected to my microcontroller TX and RX. TX, RX and programming pins are something I would change in my board design if I was going design my lamp again.

I had to keep my final project very simple since the Corona virus mixed all up and I was really busy this whole spring with my master’s thesis, work and trying to keep up with Fab Academy weekly assignments. If I had known that this is so challenging for me to complete all the assignments I would have dedicated the whole semester just to focus on this. In that case I could have been able to make a bit more complex final project. I was not able to visit Oulu more than once which was such a pity since I was not able to get to know other students that well. Something I would like to change is to cancel the Corona virus!