(Temporary) conclusion
At this time, I've done :
- mainbody design
- front drive geometry
- half of the construction
- I shown my prototype during FestivalD, sharing my design
It remains several tasks :
- re-design the rear suspension
- design the mecanical inserts in the main body (for attach mecanical parts)
- finish building the body (fixing some details that I discover during first mount)
- buy the transmission and mount it
- design the front bulb, and building it
As I explain in the dissemination page, a second large time step will consist in improving the first prototype
in collaboration with different schools.
During this adventure, I finally succed in several tasks :
- the final body structure (without rear fork and skin) will weighs about 4kg : a good performance
- the design of the frame, with 3 cross-halving joints for each parts, avoid ambiguities in assembly and give a very precise geometry, not too difficult to build
- despite laking for time, I finaly build an half prototype, that's give a good idea of the final velomobile
- The hotwire foam cutting with wooden planks as guide is a good numerico/anlogik technique
- I do a good simulation of front drive geometry using freecad constrained sketches
- During last weekend (showing the proto during festival D) ,
I see that this project responds to the needs of many people.
- This show give me the occasion to convice several people to implicate then in the project for further developpements
But success is not total because :
- some bugs with our laser cutter make me lost two plywood planks, prevented me to assembly the total frame
- At the begining of the fabacademy, I thought creating the proto all the spring long. I fact I spend all my time on each weekly assignement : I miss anticipate the gestion of time
- for this reason, I miss time to experiment vacuum baging epoxy gluing
- I used blender because it was the only free software that I know able to combine 3D modelling and developping surface technique. But finally, I validate that is not the ideal tool for CAD modelling. Later, I plan to redraw all the velomobile with freecad (when I will know better it's usage)
- The nesting for cutting the plywood was very bad, consuming a lot of wood : it needs to be improved
- what is the design of the rear fork ?
- what is the better gluing technique : PU glue or vacuum/epoxy ?
As I explained in detail in the dissemination page, the next steps will be :
- from here to october 2014 : finishing the proto zero
- between october 2014 and june 2015 : refine some parts with local schools (iut, wooden construction school...)
- ...to go to a next prototype ("number one") : production model for june 2015
- from jully to september 2015 : a crowdfunding campaign will be launched to get money for a first batch of production (about 10 or 20 pieces)
- during automn 2015, the production will begin, selling kits and workshops
During this process of creating a velomobile (began several years ago), I learn alot of things.
Particulary :
- draw a good front drive geometry using constrained sketch in freecad
- design a 3D complex object, using plane materials (with strip planking and developping surface techniques)
- even that blender isn't a CAD ideal tool, I discover a lot of scripts (like exportPaperModel or exportSVGView and Sverchok) very usefull for different things
- I learned to write extensions for blender
- I discover (without getting the time to experiment it) the vacuum baging technique, that's seems to be very usefull
- I discovered a nice analogico/numerical technic to cut freeforms in foam
During the fabacademy in general, I learned a lot of things : I can quasi map the schedule to the list of what I learned.
But more significatives and new tips for me was :
- pressfit : fine tuning of the thickness for assembly after lasercutting
- soldering CMS (I was very affraid at the begining, but now, I like it very much)
- assembly programming was a very pedagogic experience for me
- during molding and casting course, I discovered the power of machinable wax : extending a lot the field of action
I was very happy to discover all this techniques, and now,
after making allmost anyway
I think being able to make allmost anything.