Erwin Kooi
16 - Applications and Implications
What can you do with the methods and techniques you learned at FabAcademy? Write this in a page for your final project.
This week is not for messing with goo, spinning bits or shooting lazors. It is all about documenting the final project.
Propose a final project masterpiece that integrates the range of units covered.
Your project should incorporate:
- 2D and 3D design
- additive and subtractive fabrication processes
- electronics design and production
- microcontroller interfacing and programming
- system integration and packaging
- I have already started designing parts of the final project.
- I want to see if the Product Breakdown System is useful for this project.
- There are some very helpful tools out there to help you get a grip on large and complex problems. It is also easy to get bogged down in them. Finding the right balance of tool vs project is important.
- The PBS system is great for component tracking for complex projects, but not helpful for time planning. An old-fashinged gantt chart still works best for me.
For my final project I will be making a puzzle box. This wil allow me to show the various techniques of the past weeks.
- It will have wooden frame with table-sawed struts and laser-cut panels (weeks 2 and 3 )
- It will have 3d-printed supports (week 5)
- It will have dedicated designed pcb’s per puzzle (weeks 4 and 3)
- It will have a microprocessor per puzzle with the puzzle logic (week 8)
- It will have inputs and outputs for humans to interact with the puzzle (weeks 10 and 12)
- It will have one controller to orchestrate the puzzles in the story line
- It will have a communication network so the controller can direct the puzzles (week 13)
The initial scope will contain two puzzles, so the networking part can be demonstrated.
When time permits, more puzzles can be added and integrated in the story line.
Martin Molin from the band Wintergatan (the guy creating the Marble Machine and designing the Marble Machine X) made an interesting video on the Product Breakdown System (PBS) he started using to track the progress on his machine. This looked interesting, so I started using it for this project.
It is a hierarchical system which breaks down the product into its smaller assemblies and parts.
| ID | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 000-000 | Designing | The product (eg. the puzzle box) |
| 100-000 | Designing | A top breakdown assembly (eg. the puzzles) |
| 110-000 | Assembled | A sub-assembly (eg. a puzzle) |
| 111-000 | Assem bled | A component (eg the electronics of the puzzle) |
| 111-001 | Assembled | A part (eg. the pcb) |
| 111-002 | Assembled | A part (eg. the microprocessor) |
| 111-003 | Assembled | A part (eg. the RS485 connector) |
| 120-000 | Designing | Another sub-assambly (eg. another puzzle) |
| 121-000 | Designing | A component (eg the electronics of the puzzle) |
| 121-002 | Received | A part (eg. the microprocessor) |
| 121-001 | Received | A part (eg. the microprocessor) |
The PBS is a Google sheet and is provided under a Creative Commons license. (Yes, I pay Google 666 Eurocent per month to use their services. Fitting… :-) If I find the time, I might convert it to the Open Document Format.
The PBS sheets will be part of my final project documentation
It is a Product Breakdown System. You still have to do time-management, but this will help you divide a big project into managable chunks without loosing track of the end goal.
When discussing the PBS system mentioned above, Ferdi mentioned an open-source Gantt tracking system called GanttProject.
This will allow more project (time vs resources) tracking instead of just focussing on the product and its components.
I am now converting the PBS breakdown to the Gantt model.
For people without the software installed, below is an overview of my time planning.
I have a week off from work to work on the project. In this week, I must complete the controller and at least two puzzles.
This means having the infrastructure for the puzzles (the frame and PCBs) ready.
After this week, I will focus on the presentation on the 9th of June.
| Description | Time required | Scheduled date | Actual date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creation of frame | 4 days | 31 May | 31 May | Includes painting (can be paralellized) |
| Preparation of panels | 4 days | 31 May | Includes painting (can be paralellized) | |
| Creation of PCBs | 1 day | 30 May | 30 May | |
| Puzzle - controller | 2 day | 1 June | 2 June | Includes communication protocol and generic code |
| Puzzle - Simon Says | 1 day | 2 June | 3 June | |
| Puzzle - Master Mind | 1 day | 3 June | 4 June | |
| Puzzle - Digital Safe | 1 day | 4 June | skipped | Optional puzzle, moved to spiral for now |
| Integration in panel | 1 day | 5 June | 5 June | Build is final after this date |
| Story line | 1 day | 6 june | 6 June | |
| Poster | 1 day | 7 June | 7 June | |
| Movie clip | 1 day | 8 June | 9 June | |
| Presentation | 3 minutes | 9 June | 9 June | |
| Relief party (covid-19 proof) | 4+ hours | 9 June | 9 June | w/ special thanks to Henk |
| Cleaning the Waag node | 1 day | 11 June | 11 June | In accordance to Fab Charter and to prevent Sulke’s wrath :-) |
The original data part can be found here.
The original analytics part can be found here.
My data part can be found here.
My analytics part can be found here.
The Gantt file in GanttProject format canbe found here.
- Working with these tools helped to split the project into smaller parts. Even though I did not use it in the end, it really helped to structure the final project in smaller projects that can be planned accordingly.
- The system uses google docs and in a non-Chrome-type browser, updates can be strange. Migrated to GanttProject tool removed the browser dependency.
- I would start sooner with designing. The idea has been in my head for quite some time and that would have helped me to finalize some descisions.
- Not much, it was fun playing with the tools.