Assignment 17 objective


This week assignment consists of two phases:

  1. Group Assignment:
    - Design a machine that includes mechanism + actuation + automation.
    - Build the mechanical parts and operate it manually, then Automate the machine.
    - Document the group project.

  2. Individual Assignments:
    Document your individual contribution.

Learning outcomes:

  • Work and communicate effectively in a team and independently.
  • Design, plan and build a system
  • Analyse and solve technical problems
  • Recognise opportunities for improvements in the design


        • Another fun week in Fabacademy!! This week we explored machines and differen't kind of mechanical designs and actuation systems. The assignment was to design a machine that includes mechanism+actuation+automation. We chose to go with an >Etch-a-Sketch plotter. The Etch A Sketch comes with two knobs, one moves the little needle horizontally (X-axis)and the other moves it Vertically (Y-axis). We have decided to automate the drawings on this toy to produce impressive drawings. face mask and increase human protection.



    1. Group assignment

      For the Group assignment we We Divided the work into 3 parts between 4 people in the group.

      1. Mechanical actuation of the toy (Me: Achraf and Abdulrahman)
      2. Electronics and motor drivers (Katya Diaz)
      3. G code generation and programming the controller(Ahmad Almansoor)



      Please visit the group assignment page documented in our colleague page

      Group Assignment Page

      II. Individual assignment

        In this section I will be documenting step by step my Task in the machine design assignment. My role was the following

        1. Design the outer frame and the motor support of the Etch-sketch toy.
        2. Connect the gears.
        3. Set-up the belt system.

        1. Design the outer frame and the motor support of the Etch-sketch toy.

        First part I took the dimension of the toy manually using mesuring tape, then I made the 2D design on solidworks. The purpose of the frame is to fix the motors and the toy in one part and make a gear and belt system. Shown below the 2D design



          Frame Design download link

        Once the 2D design was made, I when to CNC the part using the ShopBot. The procedure of using the shopBot already covered in the Make somthing big assignment, please refer to Week 7 assignment to understand the step by step procedure of operting the machine. below shown the time laps video of the machine operating.



      After that the MDF wood frame was ready so that we fix the toy and the motor on it. shown below me trying to fix the motors.



      Challenges faced: During the CNC cutting I have faced some challenges that made me figure out alternative ways and fix the problem. I had an incident with the machine as my colleague broke the milling bit and at the lab we did not have replacment 6 mm bit. So I had to improvise and replace the milling bit with a drilling bit to finish the job. To stay safe and finish the job, I made modications on the settings, as I have increased the layers/cut and reduced the feed speed to reduce the pressure on the cutting drill

    2. Connect the gears.

      This part was simple as I had to assemble the gears in the motor shafts and the toy knobs, as shown below.



    3. Set-Up the belt system.

      This part was fun and new to me. I had to get the exact dimension of belt and fix it on the gears. initally I used the super glue and tried to staple it, as shown below.



      Below shown the testing after assembling the belt and gears.

      Below shown the final design of my part in the Mechanical design assignment.



      After connecting the motors to the microcontroller and generate the G.CODE, Unfortunately we were not able to use this design as there was belt slipping on the gears the belt kept disconnecting. Therefore we had to use a different design to make it work.

      The next design is shown in the group work.

      Shown below the test of motors, it dimonstrats the slipping of belt on the gears.



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