PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
Assignment
- Develop a plan for dissemination of your final project
- Complete your final project, tracking your progress:
- what tasks have been completed, and what tasks remain?
- what's working? what's not?
- what questions need to be resolved?
- what will happen when?
- what have you learned?
Progress
Task Status
Questions to Resolve
- How can pill jamming inside the dispensing chamber be prevented?
- What is the most reliable method for aligning the rotating disc accurately?
- How much motor torque is required when the compartments are fully loaded?
- What is the best way to detect whether a pill was successfully dispensed?
- How can power consumption be reduced for longer battery life?
- How can the system notify users or caregivers when a dose is missed?
- How durable are the 2D-printed moving parts after repeated usage?
- What improvements are needed for smoother servo and stepper synchronization?
- How can the user interface be simplified for elderly users?
What Will Happen When
The following timeline outlines the planned sequence of remaining work for MediBee, from the current state through final submission.
Week 18 (Now) — Design Finalization
Complete the Fusion 360 enclosure and rotating disc geometry. Resolve any fit issues between the disc, housing, and motor shaft. Export STL files ready for printing.
Week 19 — Fabrication
3D print the enclosure, rotor discs, and pill gate. Assemble the mechanical parts and verify clearances. Mill the custom PCB and solder all components.
Week 20 — Firmware & Integration
Write and test stepper motor control, servo gate logic, and buzzer alert. Integrate all firmware modules into a single working sketch and run an end-to-end dispense cycle.
Week 21 — Testing & Refinement
Run repeated dispense cycles to check reliability. Fix any pill-jamming or misalignment issues. Validate the buzzer and LED alert on a simulated missed dose.
Final Week — Documentation & Presentation
Complete the Fab Academy documentation page, record the one-minute presentation video, and archive all design files on GitLab with a proper README.
What Have You Learned
Building MediBee across the Fab Academy program has generated a number of practical learnings — both technical and process-related.
PCB Design and Schematic Discipline
Laying out a multi-component board — ESP32, ULN2003, DS3231, TP4056, stepper, servo, buzzer — taught the importance of grouping by function, keeping power and signal traces separate, and checking footprints against physical parts before sending to fabrication.
Mechanical Tolerances in 3D Printing
Even small errors in CAD clearances lead to parts that bind or rattle in real prints. Designing the rotating disc and pill chamber openings required iteration with test prints to find the right fit for reliable dispensing without jamming.
Scoping a Project to What Is Actually Buildable
The original concept included a companion mobile app and wireless dose tracking. Both were cut when it became clear that the mechanical and embedded systems alone required the full available time. Ruthless scoping is as important a skill as technical execution.
Documentation as a Design Tool
Writing up design decisions week by week helped identify gaps and contradictions earlier than they would otherwise have surfaced. Explaining a mechanism in words often reveals that the mechanism itself is not fully thought through.
Intellectual Property and Licensing
Working through the Week 18 IP content made clear how much legal complexity exists around hardware projects — patents, trademarks, copyright, and trade secrets each cover different aspects. Choosing the right license for an educational project requires understanding all of these, not just picking an open-source badge.
License Links and Icons
The license section at the bottom of the page contains multiple clickable links and icons that provide additional information about the project and its licensing terms.
- The “MediBee” text links directly to the final project page where the complete documentation, design process, and development details of the project are available.
- The “Merin Cyriac” link opens the creator’s Fab Academy student page containing weekly assignments, project development work, and documentation.
- The “CC BY-NC-ND 4.0” link opens the official Creative Commons license page which explains the legal terms, permissions, and restrictions associated with the license.
- The small license icons are official Creative Commons symbols that visually represent the permissions and restrictions of the license agreement.
These links help users understand the ownership, usage rights, and documentation source of the project while also giving direct access to the official license information.