Week 17: Aplications and Implications

This week assignment was to propose the final project.

Intelligent Sunroof Project

"Sol y Sombra" (literally: sun and shade) are a quite popular type of decorative outdoor structure, usually used in gardens and beach houses; I even have one at home. They are simple wooden structures.

solysombra photo techos-sol-y-sombra1366733372_zpsfe55b4b4.jpg

Although their popularity, I found some inconveniences, mainly that they do not provide real protection against intense sunlight and/or rain. Some add transparent plastic plates on top of the structure, giving a layer of protection, but defeating (partially) the purpose of having "sun" plus "shade".

My idea deals with creating a more versatile version of these structures, by making a small prototype (around 1x1 meters). The basic structure would be fixed longitudinal beams, with rails to hold the transverse beams. A mechanical device would be used to move the transverse beams, plus add a rotational motion to "open" and "close" the structure..

What will it do?

The intelligent Sunroof Project will be an outdoor structure intended to have both functional and decorative purposes. As for the functional part, it will provide an adjustable source of shade during daytime, useful for houses’ outdoor spaces (like terraces), plus a source of artificial lighting at nighttime. Everything keeping a stylish and customizable design.

Who’s done what beforehand?

The basic design is quite mainstrain, with several examples. In most cases they are just a cross wooden beam designs. To these, some acrylic plates (or similar) are attached to provide additional protection against sunlight and rain, plus some simple lights are hanged.

2014 FabAcademy alumni Oded Shorer and Gali Lea-Baly created the Smart Curtain which uses more or less the same principles as my project, but applied to a smaller scale and using a vertical position to make a curtain.


Same year alumni Hashem Joucka´s Window Shutters Construction Kit also had a similar idea.

What materials and components will be required?

The following components are intended for a small version. The same components can ust be replicated and/or adjusted for full scale applications.

Where will they come from?

Most of the materials needed for the project are intended to be sourced from the FabLab´s inventory. Actually, most components should be designed to use the available materials. What is most likely to be needed apart from our inventory are all the small hardware parts that can be easily bought at local hardware shops.

How much will it cost?

I have not made a final cost estimate. Although, as most materials are part of the inventory, I think that I could easily be covered by the $100 budget. Additional parts should not cost more than $20. These keeping in mind that the product would be a small version (using full scale parts) to test out the functionality. Also, it should be considered that for the project many mechanical parts will be made of MDF (maybe reinforced as composites if needed) or plastic, while on a full commercial application metal parts would be needed (too expensive to make single prototype at this stage).

UPDATE: In the end, I used about $150 from the inventory, as I used much more MDF than intended. Additional pars, including electric components, wiring, nuts, bolts and washers topped up to about $10. Plus, I recycled old electrical piping, so I got that for free.

What parts and systems will be made?

Most components will be made and assembled using the lab´s materials, machines and tools. Actually, it is intended to use as few as possible bought parts.

What processes will be used?

For the project, the following processes will be required (though more could be needed on the go):

What tasks need to be completed?

What questions need to be answered?

At this points, my main concerns are:

What is the schedule?

More or less, the schedule to finish the project is the following:

How will it be evaluated?

I am not really sure how to fully answer this at this stage. But I can point out some indicators that would tell that the project runs as originally intended:

 

 

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