12. Mechanical Design, Machine Design
Assignments
Here you can find a recording of the lecture from the 9th of april.
This week's assignments and learning outcomes, see here:
Group assignment:
- Design a machine that includes mechanism + actuation + automation + application
- Build the mechanical parts and operate it manually
- Actuate and automate your machine
- Document the group project
Individual assignment:
- Document your individual contribution
Questions to be answered/from Nueval:
Have you answered these questions?
- Documented the machine building process to the group page
- Documented your individual contribution to this project on your own website
- Linked to the group page from your individual page as well as from group page to your individual pages
- Shown how your team planned, allocated tasks and executed the project (Group page)
- Described problems and how the team solved them (Group page)
- Listed possible improvements for this project (Group page)
- Included your design files (Group page)
- You need to present your machine globally and/or include a 1 min video (1920x1080 HTML5 MP4) + slide (1920x1080 PNG) (Group page)
Hero shot
Our machine
Here you can see our machine. It combines a realistic sun path model with a 3D landscape. You can select a certain date and time and then the mathematical model calculates the zenith and azimuth angle of the sun. Then it rotates the 3D landscape and moves the arm with the artificial sun, vizualizing the position of the sun towards the center of the landscape model and the shadows being cast by the surrounding mountains. Ísafjörður is at the center of the model and Fab Lab Ísafjörður is marked with a red pin.
Bjartur Leó Hlynsson came up with the name of the machine; "Days of Darkness".
The enclosure/base
I designed the enclosure in Fusion with assistance from Jóhannes Andrésson. The decorations on the enclosure were designed in Inkscape:
A title page
I made this title page for the presentation video in Canva:
Presentation slide
I made this presentation slide in Canva. The text was done in collaboration with Jóhannes Andrésson:
Presentation video
The video was done with support in the final stages from Jóhannes Andrésson. The video itself can be found on outcome page but here is a screenshot from it:
First PCB board
Here is a photo of the first PCB board we made. Jóhannes Andrésson did most of the work in the Schematic and PCB editor, milling it and soldering components onto it, but I got to collaborate and I did some (little) work in all of this:
Summary
Our Machine week documentation
Our documentation for the Machine week is split into three pages on our group work page, under Machine week. Here you can find these three pages:
We worked together in a group of four persons. We live in different locations around Iceland with long distances between us. I live in Neskaupstaður, Bjartur Leó Hlynsson lives in Vestmannaeyjar, Högni Friðriksson and Jóhannes Andrésson live in Ísafjörður. Because of these long distances we did some preparation online before the machine week, as you can see on our preparation page. We worked on the idea online, went over which components we needed and who would supply them. We also assigned projects to each member.
Then the group met in Fab Lab Ísafjörður Monday April 7th. We document what each team member did on the following days and you can read about it on our main week page. The group worked well together but everything took much more time than I thought it would. It was a time consuming project, but it was worth every minute. I arrived at Fab Lab Ísafjörður every morning around 08 AM and worked until late in the evenings. This machine was a complicated task and the work wasn't over when I had to leave Ísafjörður on thursday 10th. Since I wasn't in Ísafjörður when the machine was assembled, I concentraded on other projects; the presentation video and the presentation slide.
We had three instructors in this project; Frosti Gíslason is Bjartur's instructor. Þórarinn Bjartur Breiðfjörð was with us the first two days in Ísafjörður and Svavar Konráðsson was with us the whole time. Þórarinn was with us the first two days in Ísafjörður and Svavar gave us all the time they could possibly give, ready to assist in all debugging and troubleshooting. They took good care of us, always helpful and positive. Svavar Konráðsson would even jump to bring me coffee whenever I wanted.
You can read about the results on our outcome page.
Work process detail
Preparation
Spiral 1 - Enclosure
I did my best to design the first version of the enclosure without assistance. When it was ready, I asked Jóhannes Andrésson if there was anything wrong with the drawing. He told me that you can use Utilities - inspect interference to see if components interfere with each other. The results were not good:
He also pointed out other parts that looked wrong:
I decided that the next attempt would be drawn with assistance.
Day 1 (monday)
Main tasks:
- Collect components
- Participate in designing the PCB board
Jóhannes and me searched for components that we wanted to use in our machine and collected them all in one place.
Jóhannes had created Kicad files for our board and he designed most of it. He offered me to cooperate on it and I added a few things. He had to guide me through the process because I did not know which components to use and how they should be connected in order to be able to control our machine. I learned quite a lot from this. Now I understand better how voltage regulators work, how capacitors are used and how to use zero resistors.
Day 2 (Tuesday)
Main tasks:
- Participate in drawing the top on the enclosure and the holes for components
- Participate in milling the PCB board
- Participate in soldering on the PCB board
I had some computer problems that made my computer non functional, but luckily the brilliant 16 year old Bjartur Leó Hlynsson found out what the problem was and could fix it. This took some time, but after the computer was fixed I could continue with my work.
Spiral 2 - Enclosure
In Fusion I designed the top of the enclosure and then I drew holes for components. This was all done with assistance from Jóhannes. Now I know how to add parts, like LCD and knobs, to a design and draw holes for them to fit in.
I participated when milling the PCB board in the Roland Modela Mdx-20. We are using the ATSAMD21E18A-A microcontroller and the traces are very thin. Jóhannes had to tune the size of the traces down in the PCB editor and we had to adjust the settings before milling because it seemed as if the machine would not mill everything it should.
On this image you can see Jóhannes pointing where there should be paths to be milled but they were missing. I wish I had taken a photo of the results after the change, but the image with paths missing will have to do:
After this I participated in soldering the board. Jóhannes did most of it, f.ex. the supertiny traces around the microcontroller. I am getting much better at soldering, but everything I did took a long time. I learned a lot about the components used on the board, f.ex. how voltage regulators work. I also learned how to use zero resistors as a bridge where tracks cross each other.
Day 3 (Wednesday)
Main tasks:
- Connect/solder an USB-C board to the main PCB board
- Burned a bootloader to the ATSAMD21E18A-A
- Add holes for input and output on the enclosure
- Add components to the enclosure
- Add text and decorations to enclosure
My first task this day was to solder wires to the PCB board and then connect/solder them to an USB-C board.
My next task was to burn a Bootloader to the ATSAMD21E18A-A microcontroller on our PCB board. Svavar Konráðsson showed me how to use a bootloader for the ATSAMD21E18A-A, following the directions from here, which led us to this site about the Programmer SWD D11C here and to Arduino Sam tutorial here.
Spiral 2 continued - Enclosure
When the enclosure was designed in Fusion, components could be added Here you can see the full drawing of the base/enclosure in Fusion:
Spiral 3 - Enclosure
When the enclosure was designed in Fusion, components could be added to it.
Day 4 (Thursday)
- Finish adding decorations to the enclosure
- Cut out the enclosure
Spiral 4 - Enclosure
I used this day to finish adding information and decorations to the enclosure. I find the math and programming behind the function of this machine so amazing and I wanted what was going on to appear on the surface of the enclosure. I designed one side with the formulas for calculating the zenith and azimuth angle of the sun and added an explanatory image of it.
On another side input and output were written. I made a pen drawing of the mountains that the sun hides behind, traced the drawing in Inkscape and used it on two sides of the enclosure.
Then Bjartur suggested that I added a map of the Westfjords in Iceland and Jóhannes suggested that I would add a pin to the map, to show where Ísafjörður is.
I wrote the names of the group members and wrote Fab Lab Ísafjörður, where we realized this machine.
Links to images and information on enclosure
Here are links to all information and images used to decorate the enclosure:
Link to solar azimuth angle formula and calculator here. The formula was used on the design of the enclosure.
Link to solar zenith angle formula and calculator here. The formula was used on the design of the enclosure.
Link to explanatory image of zenith and azimuth angle used on enclosure here
Link to map of Westfjords here. The image was used on the design of the enclosure.
Mistakes when producing the enclosure
I had little time left to finish lasercutting the base, before leaving Ísafjörður, and the last steps were taken in too much hurry. I made mistakes and had to leave before the lasercutting was done. Jóhannes finished the job the day after, when mistakes had been fixed.
When the top of the enclosure was exported as a dxf file and imported into Inkscape, the outlines were exported as three lines! The inner lines were exported as two lines. You can see this in the image below where the lines were dragged to each side. This meant that the laser did the cutting three times and it ruined the piece. Ólöf had also not noticed that the design was so big that she should have been more careful when setting the homepoint, so the design went a bit out of the boarders of the MDF plate.
Notice one more thing; When we were fixing the mistakes that were made when producing the parts of the enclosure, suddenly all sizes changed. This happened in my computer and the reason is most likely some settings that I accidently changed. I haven't found the reason but will probably find out what happened. For this reason components that were exported from Fusion and imported from dxf to Inkscape appeared far too big in Inkscape. F.ex. the width of this top should have been around 340mm but suddenly it is imported as 16.600mm.
The dxf file:
The Inkscape file:
c:\Code\olof-hannesdottir\docs\files12\TopWithTripleLinesAndTooBig.svg{ .md-button }
When I used the Combine with the Cut command under it in Fusion, to make the tabs on the top create slots in the sides, it did not work as it should, resaulting in a straight line at the top of two sides instead of a side with fingers. This would probably not have happened if she had turned off sketches when combining/cutting.
Then I exported a DXF for two sides with holes in it, but the holes were not in the DXF. That would probably not have happened if I had turned off other sketches than what I planned on using.
Jóhannes and me fixed these mistakes and Jóhannes finished lasercutting the rest.
Day 5 (Friday)
Search for video editor - Movavi tested
Spiral 1 - Presentation video
I used this day to search for and try out a Video editor. I began with Movavi.
Free edition of Movavi
I took some clips and created a short video with them. The Movavi app works well but the watermark in the free edition is quite big. This was a good practice and it gave some idea on which shots we would want to use in the final video.
See explanations on how to use Movavi here below (made in Canva):
Day 6 (Saturday)
Storyline and title slide for video
I used this day to write a storyline for the video. Then Jóhannes added to it. I designed a title page for the beginning of the video. This design was done in Canva.
A live model from Fusion
I also used some time to document and learned how to show a live 3D model from Fusion. You can f.ex. rotate the model and explode it to see all components. I saw that Jóhannes had done this and asked him how. This is how it's done:
A live 3D model
To show a live Fusion 3D model on your website, you begin by opening up the model on the web. To do that you click on the tree points and choose Open on the web.
Then you click on the Share icon.
Here you choose Embed and which size you want.
Then you copy the code and paste it into your .md in your repository. Here below you can see what it looks like.
Day 7 (Sunday)
I used the time she had this day to document and add files to the repository.
Day 8 (Monday)
I kept on documenting. Then there was a recitation. The rest of the time this day was used to finish group work from week 11.
Day 9 (Tuesday)
I documented.
Day 10 (Wednesday)
Did not have any time to work this day.
Day 11 (Thursday)
Spiral 2 - Presentation video
I used this day to work on video editing for the final video presentation. We haven't taken the final shots but I wanted to prepare everything as well as I could by practicing making videos. I wanted to see how the storyline would function with the clips we had done. I also wanted to try out adding text to videos. The first videos I made were done in Movavi. When it came to adding text I felt like the free version was offering limited variety of texts/fonts.
I decided to check out if I could use the Cap Cut editor. I had tried to download it before, but I couldn't do it for some reason. Now I found out that I could edit the videos online, so that problem was solved. Here you can see an overview of the interface of Cap Cut:
After editing I wanted to add text and then I ran into problems. I began by adding text to the first scene after the title page. I chose a big, catching font. Then I went on and added text to another scene. When I changed the font on that scene, the font and size also changed in the first scene. I tried out different things but nothing worked. Here you can see how the text changed in colour and size, from blue to white:
After giving this problem some thought, I decided to export the video from Cap Cut without captions. Then I imported it into Canva. I chose a template, imported the video and started working on editing. The video was imported as one continuous scene so when I added a textbox to one scene, it appeared on all scenes throughout the video. This meant that I had to split the video into scenes with the Split page option. Here you can see the Canva interface and the Split page tool.
I found this very hard to do in Canva, but easy to do in Movavi and Cap Cut. In Canva it was hard to see exactly where one scene ended and another one began, so this took some time. Then when I added text to the scenes it was confusing to see which scene I was adding the text to. As you can see in the images below, in the upper image it looks as if I'm adding the text to the title page scene but in fact it was in the next scene and it shows when you click on play (the lower image).
Since I like the text and font options in Canva, I will use this method when creating the final video, that is exporting a video from Cap Cut and importing it into Canva, split the video into scenes and then add text.
Day 12 (Friday)
Presentation video
Spiral 3 - Presentation video
I used the day for video editing. I changed my mind about using Canva for adding text and decided to use Cap Cut editor. The reason was that I had run into problems before with adding text to the video in Cap Cut but then found out that it was simpler than I thought. I found this out when I looked closer at settings in Cap Cut. See this image below for explanations (made in Canva).
In this spiral I added effects to the video. I collaborated with Jóhannes in the last steps of making the video.
Day 13 (Saturday)
Presentation slide designed
Presentation slide
I designed the preparation slide in Canva.
Another one tested in grayscale
I also made a slide in grayscale to see if it would look better than the colourful slide, but the colourful one here above was used as a final presentation slide.
Design files
Fusion file for the base/enclosure
Inkscape files for the base/enclosure
Files with errors
First attempt to design the enclosure without assistance
The top seems to have triple lines, so the laser cut it three times
There are holes missing in these files
