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Week 16. Applications and Implications

Assignment Tasks:

Propose a final project masterpiece that integrates the range of units covered.

The questions needs to be answered area:

What will it do?
Who's done what beforehand?
What will you design?
What materials and components will be used?
Where will come from?
How much will they cost?
What parts and systems will be made?
What processes will be used?
What questions need to be answered?
How will it be evaluated?

Project Overview

Like every other student in our batch, I picked a project during the first week itself. However, after talking with my tutors here, I realised that my project might not cover much of the topics we discussed, particularly the electronics. So I made the decision to modify it.

After some brainstorming, I came up with the concept of a convertible furniture that is mechanically operated along with a wireless charger and an LED charger indicator.

What will it do?

Many thoughts crossed my mind before I finalised this project, the majority of which were furniture ideas only. But after finalising this one, my biggest concern was the function that it serves. Whether it’s a piece of furniture with a wireless charger attached to it and some fancy LEDs showing the degree of charging, or a piece of furniture that serves as a laptop table that then folds into a small side table.

While looking for ideas, I came across this furniture and knew it was the one.

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I started by sketching out a quick version of my idea.

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Who’s done what beforehand?

Convertible furniture has a long history that dates back to the 18th century. Additionally, we grew up watching films where a book shelf was transformed into a door that led to a secret tunnel. As a result, this question appears to be a never-ending list.

But practically speaking, we can stick with a few names that were exclusive to this industry. Create-A-Bed was one I came upon. They solely concentrate heavily on convertible beds. They make use of a Murphy bed mechanism. Convertible tables are also available. Below are some of their products.

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Some other interesting images came across was also shown here.

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But, after all of this browsing, I discovered that the majority of them only function manually. There is no electronic control over any of them. One company in India, Ebco, offers several mechanisms that are electronically controlled. However, they don’t offer furniture; they just offer hardware.

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What will you design?

My plan is to create furniture that looks like a side table when folded and like a laptop table when opened. With the push of a button, the table’s top can be rotated and raised to the desired height and position. Additionally, it features a wireless charger with an indicator light that shows the charging state as an add-on feature.

So my design includes:

1.Design a furniture which is simple as well as ergonomic.

2.Design a mechanism that can operate both the lifting and turn table mechanisms at the same time. This is due to the fact that I wanted the entire mechanism to be as minimal as possible.

3.Design the electronics which can control the mechanism.

4.Casing for the wireless charger and LEDs.

What materials and components will be used, where it come from & how much will they cost?

No Item/Particulars Specification/Make Qty Unit Rate Amount Source
1 Plywood 12mm thick - 8’x4’ size 1.5 sheet - - Fab Inventory
2 Stepper motor Nema 17 1 nos - - Fab Inventory
3 PLA 1 Roll - - Fab Inventory
4 Bearing -
5 Smooth Rod 8mm Dia, 300mm Long 2 Nos Amazon
6 Lead Screw with Copper Nut 350mm Long, Trapezoidal, 4 start, 8mm dia, 2mm pitch 1 no. Rs.249 Rs.249 Robu.in
7 Linear Bearing 2 Nos Rs.39 Rs. 78 Robu.in
8 Addressable LED 15 cm Rs.457/mtr Rs.69 Robu.in
9 5V Qi Wireless Charger 1 No. Rs.337 Rs.337 Robu.in
10 Screws Fab Inventory
11 Silicon Fab Inventory
12 Resin Fab Inventory
13 PCB Fab Inventory
14 Electronics Fab Inventory

What parts and systems will be made?

  1. The entire furniture will be made using plywood.

  2. Gears and other mechanisms will be made using 3D printing.

  3. Electronics will be designed and made in house only.

  4. Wireless charger & Neopixel LED will be outsourced.

What processes will be used?

Process we need to use for this project are:

  1. Wood CNC milling

  2. 3D printing

  3. Molding & casting

  4. Circuit Designing

  5. PCB Milling

  6. Soldering & Assembling

  7. Embedded Programming

What questions need to be answered?

How the furniture is being made & what all materials needs? Furniture can be made using 12mm thick plywood, designed using Fusion 360 & fabricated digitally usung shopbot CNC milling machine and joined using pocket joints. If needed making use of hand machines such as orbital sander, router, jig saw etc.

How turn table & lifting mechanism works? We make use of the theory for linear actuator to make this, with the help of 3D printed gears. Alos the stem can be made in such a way that it turns while lifting with the help of bearings sloted inside.

How the electronics control everything? With the help of SAMD11C microchip, we will make a PCB board to control everything. Another small board may be used for button.

What input & Output desives are being used? Button will be our input device, while stepper motor adn Addressable LED will act as our output devices. Wireless charger can also be considered as an output device. And a voltage sensor is also added to measure the currect flowing towards wireless charger. Which will also be an input device.

How will it be evaluated?

The main idea behind this design was to incorporate the knowledge I acquired during Fab Academy. The product I am presenting is a protype for the entire concept of smart & convertible furniture. So to evaluate this product, we can consider three main parts:

  1. Ergonomics of Design

  2. The functionality of the mechanism - The lifting and rotation.

  3. The functioning of the electronics, mainly the wireless charger and its connected LED.


Help Taken & Other References

Chat GPT used for doubt clearing and content helps.

Pinterest

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