Project Daily Blog 3

For almost the entire class today, I was finalizing the parts list with Isaac. I went on many websites and did research the parts we needed and where we can get them. I was able to find different types of microcontrollers, motor shields, motors, and arduino uno. It was difficult to identify which ones are compatible with our projects and which ones are not, because I need to go through the data sheet and look at its current, power, voltage, etc to see if they would work. Some websites do not provide any information on the parts so I needed to do further research. Other websites have long delivery time. Ultimately, we were able to get all the parts we needed for the first stage of our projects. As part of the team, I also helped Allen with building his Chassis. 

Before next class, I will starting working on the coding for the robot, and I will hopefully get to research on some other parts that we need for the projects that we will not need until later. Our robot needs to be assembled and all the products need to be ordered by next week, so we can start 3D printing next week.

Final Project Daily Blog 2

In class today, we weighted the weight of the chassis and the diameter of the wheels. With that information, I was able to figure out the stall torque that is required. This helped me to finalize the type of DC motor we will buy. I went on a few different websites to further research on the motors to make sure that the torque, power, size, and voltage level of the motor I selected is all good for our project. I also researched on the h-bridge and gear boxing and decided that we will not use it. As part of the team, Isaac and I communicated on the materials we will be using, and I helped Allen with building/assembling our chassis/robot. Before next class, I will make a spreadsheet with all the parts that we will order online, the quantity, and the website we will order from. The point of this is so that we keep track of what we have, what we need, and how much they cost since we have a budget. 

Final Project Daily Blog 1

During class today, Issac and I went over again the details about our project. I looked over the proposal again to just be sure of every detail that I need to know, and discussed with Issac any confusion I have regarding how this project is going to go. Since the timeline was due by the end of the class, Issac and I discussed on the scheduling and the things we intend to accomplish every week in the next month. Since there are three paths that we can choose to finish our project - each path with a different complexity and difficulty level, it was hard for us to decide when we need to finalize our final choice of which path we want to go. Other than that, the general plan and direction of our project was not hard to figure out. Individually, I had being researching details about this project, especially finding parts and materials we need to use. I specifically was looking at motors, h-bridge, and gear reduction during class and before. I found out ways to figure out what kind of motors we needed (DC) and how to figure which specific type should be chosen (mathematical formulas). This requires knowledge about power, current, and voltage. So before Wednesday's class, Issac will figure out the weight of the chassis (since he has it), and the dimensions, and these information will be useful for me to figure out the final motors we need to use. 

Methane Sensor Build Reflection

In order to successfully completing this project, I believe that the most important thing is to understand what has to be done and understand what you can do to help to get this project done. Although I did what I had to do in the project, such as the coding and reflection parts, but I think it is also crucial to help my teammates with problems they encounter, so I believe that constantly asking each other if they need help with anything or what is the currently progress of the project is important. Since our initial design proposal, we had to change some of the coding in order to make our sensor work. We also had to modify our case since we realized that the dimension we originally planned did not accommodate what can be the most efficient, and we had to keep modifying it many times later because we kept finding problems. This problem could have been solved during the design phase if more time were taken. If we were to arrange the parts in our case in the CAD model a few more different ways, we would then be able to decide what dimension would the case be. 

Overall, for the most part, our group was successful because we took every step seriously and we were very attentive to detail. Especially in the CAD model design part, we took a long time and made sure that every thing is a hundred percent correct. Also we collaborated well and no one complained or anything. The big challenge we faced were that we were not able to finish the project on time. Although it seems like the reason is that we were not able to use the room outside of class since we don't have access to them, but I believe that if we were to manage our time more wisely and did not spend so much time on modifying the case, we could then have finished the project. We did not have the time to print out our case so we were not able assemble them. However, now we know that we need to manage our time efficiently and towards the final project, it is crucial to plan everything ahead of time.