Machine Design

Here's a summary about what you'll see next:

1) Brief about the machine
2) Group Assignment
3) Individual Assignment
  1. X-Axis Design - Fusion 360
  2. X-Axis Fabricate - Table Saw & Laser-Cut & 3D Print
  3. X-Axis Assembly
  4. Stepper Motor Test
  5. Code Spiral Development
  6. Soil Moisture Sensor Test
  7. Water Pumps Test
  8. Water Tank Holder Design
  9. Cable Management and Final Wiring
3) Original Files

1) Brief about the machine

This week we needed to design a machine that included mechanism + actuation + automation + application. After lots of thinking and searching we saw an interesting project which is Farm Bot. It's a CNC farming machine that helps grow food and plants for everyone and maintain low consumption of water. So we decided to make it on a small scale. The main features of this machine will be that it can read the soil moisture level in different pots or spots we define and it says which plant needs to be irrigated and activate irrigation for it.

The machine will have UART communication as each axis will have its own microcontroller (Arduino Uno) and there will be a master microcontroller (Xiao ESP32-C3) controlling them via web interface.

Our machine will be moving in 3 axis and the z axis has 2 end effectors which are the soil moisture sensor and the water pump. Each axis has its own limit switch.

Next, we will see how we managed to work on this machine as a team and brought the machine out to the world.

2) Group Assignment

To get this machine done we agreed that each one of us will work on an axis from beginning to the end. Amr will work on the Y-Axis, I will work on the X-Axis, and Eman will work on the Z-Axis. Then we will integrate all our designs together.

This way made a great collaborative team as we needed to communicate together to know how we will integrate each axis with the other based on our designs and in the same time no one is falling behind or delaying the others.

This also helped as if someone finished his design and moved to the next step for example coding. He made it easier for the rest of the team to build on what he already started and not starting from the beginning. In our case this person was Amr :D. We depended on him a lot in the code.

So let's get started with the journey of making the X-Axis and lots of cool stuff.

3) Individual Assignment

1. X-Axis Design - Fusion 360

The first thing to do for me was to design the X-Axis. There are lots of ways to build an axis and make it move but I was interested in building it with Aluminium profiles and the movement using a belt.

We checked the inventory and found that we had 20x20mm aluminium profiles and all other needed components. I searched for this profile on mcmaster but I couldn't find it so I downloaded a 3D design of Creality Ender 3 Extended Travel and it helped me a lot with the components in the design.

I first added the profiles and then searched on mcmaster for corners for the framing and chose the extended corner because I'll not be having any other corner to joint the profiles together from so I needed the corner to have 2 screws on each side to hold the profiles together without moving around.