Week 2: On Thursday (04.02.2021) morning my instrutor (Andrew) and I started by talking about what my idea is and how it is going to take shape in the end. Andrew then had a point that I need to think about the different areas of my project and what I need to think about. The main questions is what is it actually going to do and how it is going to work?! These then split into other areas which I made a mind map (see below) to help my brain with what I need to see the areas, the idea that can help those areas.
With the spider diagram I saw I needed to figure out the input and the output and how they would work and where they would sit in the design. As I had no idea what any of these words actually meant I started to ask Andrew many many questions, this did helped me a lot and he answered a lot of them. My idea is to make a baby mobile that can detect when the baby moves or cries and then it starts by playing music and starts moving in a circle.
As you can see in the diagram there are serveral motors and sensors I can use to get this to work but the question is can I make it work and will it work in the end! Having never done anything to do with engineering I feel very much out of my depths when thinking of concusions for all these areas, also I have never seen over half the items on this sheet which Andrew is telling me about. But this got me very excited which got my brain going with ideas that could help me design my project to help with the placement of the board and motors I might need to move the mobile.
My first idea was that maybe I would use a motor to get the string or thread that I would use to attach the mobile together could get wound up and then when let go would course the mobile to spin (see image). This could work but also could be a huge fail as the motion is very aggresive and might be too much for a mobile. I them thougt could a magnet help with the motion of the pieces so that they would repel eachother but then this might not work as they might connect because the string would be flimsy.
After this thought I realised that I might not need that much force to get the mobile to move. By having more items on my mobile this could help a chain reaction by just producing one movment like in a servor motor. By attaching a servor motor to the top of the mobile this could then produce enough force to shove the mobile which would then course a chain reaction from the top to the bottom and fingers crossed it would carry on.
To make more sense of where this would then sit and by using a piece I decided to design and print something to help my brain understand. This took many different attempts as I am still getting used to using CAD (during week 2).
First I realised I need change my brain to work with CAD, the first image of the two drawings is me realising it is easier to sketch and then extrude. Whereas I was going to make the whole piece and then take away the 3D areas that I didn't want.
Lets just say it didn't go quite to plan and I need to make another with a whole in it! I then realised they are rather big and actually need a whole to where the servor can connect to the cupling on the side.
This did not work as an idea as I realised that between the two couplings there needed to be movement to allow the mobile to move. I then slept and for some reason in bed as I am about to go to sleep I always think of my ideas but not to worry always have a notebook by my side. This is when I thought I could have the mobile attached to something that controls everything rather than having the electronics on the mobile.
Then on Monday I came in and designed the new idea in CAD and printed it, the idea is that the motor is attched to a piece then is then attached to another piece that has a hook in (selecte drawing image). This then hooks onto the mobile and moves it around which will then course a chain reaction down the rest of the mobile. This idea is much better as you can attach it to any mobile and it will allow it to move.
During the discussion at the beginning about what the mobile will do, one thought was to make it so that the baby would be sensored when moving for a sertain amount of time. I would have to use a motion sensor (see image below) which would be connected to the mobile and be able to detect the motion of the baby and then start the mobile moving and the sounds start playing.
