Project Development

Complete your final project, tracking your progress:

What tasks have been completed and what tasks remain?

Until now, the plans for the structure of the project have been designed, we cut it in the laser machine, as it was well graduated, it was able to cut the 12 mm thick MDF in a single stroke; When assembling it, one of the tank supports did not fit by thousandths, so we had to correct it and in the end, corrected, everything turned out very well. The cover of our project was also developed with the logo and name, but this time in 3mm MDF.

The idea raised to implement a development card for the control of our project, a modest part was operationally practical for the applications, we baptized this card as "FAB XIAO TRAINER" based on the XIAO RP2040 that has 4 integrated outputs based on LEDs and 4 integrated inputs based on push buttons that helped us a lot in the input and output assignments made previously, although its development took us a lot of work.

The selection of the solenoid valves was another great job due to the cost and the affordability in the market, but it also weighed on wanting to reuse some solenoid valves that we had in disused washing machines, but testing only the solenoid valves were working well.

One of the concerns is the filling speed of the tanks, which have a capacity of 3 liters each. Doing tests, we found a 3L/min pump that seems adequate for the project.

The cables that I will use for electrical installations, I will hide them inside conduits, I have been experimenting both with UTP cables for the wiring and also with cables to connect the solenoid valves (that I recovered from those disused washing machines), it seems to me that it has a good finish on the MDF so it will be a good option, we will continue advancing.

What is working? it's not

Since the solenoid valves work with 220V AC, we will work with a TRIAC-based and opto-coupled power card that we will assemble as a power stage. One detail that we are seeing is that we do not have surface-mounted components for this task, so we will work with thru hole components if we can't get the SMDs.

As for the sensors we will use to measure the liquid level in the tanks that we were testing in previous assignments, but we will have to develop some way to attach them to the tanks to make good measurements, we will do it with PLA on a 3D printer according to the custom model that is required.

Due to some suggestions from co-workers, they specified that these selected solenoid valves must have high pressure, I will have to work on them to solve it, I have already reviewed some videos and the specifications they detail seem good to solve this problem.

What questions need to be resolved?

Will the adaptation work for the solenoid valves? Will it be able to be powered by batteries or will it be connected to the source, or maybe both? How portable is it and how easy is it to transport? Will it be safe for students to handle so as not to cause accidents with water?

What will happen when?

In this week I will finish:

Adapting the solenoid valves to work at low pressure.

We will design and print the adaptations of the sensors to the tanks

We will calibrate the liquid levels in each tank.

We will program in LabView the controller for the project.

We will carry out the final functional tests

We will prepare the final presentation, with a little help

What have you learned?

I found all this time invested in the "fabAcademy" very interesting. I learned many new things that I am getting more used to every day to continue with this line of work that I liked.

For example, I learned about creating web pages, but with version control, image compression to create our own websites.

Assimilate in a better way the use of different free software and the protection of our work with an international free license.

In general, I understood the importance of calibrating each of the machines to see what the production quality was in 3D printing, laser cutting and engraving, cuts by CNC milling machines and the vinyl cutter.

Regarding the design, I have learned to use some new design software, although I am not an expert but I broaden my vision to these software.

Likewise, I have learned many new things with FreeCAD, for example, I have used new tools from the program and also some developed by external ones, I like working with it, I also used Inkscape, Openshape, Kicad, Arduino IDE among others, but the ones mentioned are the Software I used the most.

I also learned to design a circuit board with Kicad from the schematics to the production of the "Gerbers", developing the PCB board "FAB XIAO TRAINER" based on the XIAO RP2040 with SMD components that was quite a challenge to mill the PCB and solder. the components, in the end the whole board designed works very well.

To finish, I would like to highlight that I personally learned how to generate the documentation of our work, although I was a little behind due to the deadlines, my objective was to provide the important parts of that assignment as if anyone who reads it understood the process.