FabLab Academy 2016

Sam Guzauskas
Fab Lab Academy 2016

Biography

My name is Sam Guzauskas and I was born and raised in Anchorage, AK. I am currently attending the University of Alaska Anchorage working on my Bachelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering and plan to graduate this spring, May 2016. I have an addiction to the outdoors and enjoy getting outside as much as I can. Some of my favorite things to do out in the Alaskan wilderness is hiking, camping, kayaking, fly fishing, and backcountry skiing.

My brother, right, and I on the Kenai River at the end of the summer catching some Rainbow Trout and Dolly.

Kayaking to work in Valdez, AK

I found out about the Fab Lab Academy through a program on campus called the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, or ANSEP. Through my experience in different internships and schooling I have been exposed to some CNC and 3D printing technology, but have never truly worked with it. Having this experience will hopefully broaden my understanding of these different technologies and getting myself immersed in new softwares and technology. I can't wait to see where I'll be at the end of the program!

Weekly Modules

Week 1 - Principles and Practices, Project Management

This is really my first time developing a website and writing an html code to create a website. With the help of Steven, he helped me in downloading the program "Brackets." This program allows the user to write the code and see a live preview of their website as they are developing it. Really great, for a first time user to website code. Figure 1.1 shows the Brackets program and live preview of my site being developed.

Figure 1.1: Using Brackets to develop a website with a live preview of it as it is being worked on
With the help of an html cheat sheet, shown in Figure 1.2, and the program Brackets, I was able to put together this simple website design. I am hoping as the program moves forward I will be able to develop a cleaner and more complex web design that will be easy to navigate.

Figure 1.2: HTML cheat sheet helping in developing a website

Academy Final Project - Proposal

For this semester, I have decided to design and build an LED phone case for the Samsung Galaxy S5. I want it to be powered externally from the phone battery and controlled by the bluetooth on the phone. Preliminary thoughts, I want it to be able to either stay on one color chosen by the user, or have a random changing of the colors.

The case will be made out of 3D printed material as it will provide a good fit for the phone. The design or symbol on the back will be laser cut and inlaid within the case. Another idea for the backing was to have it be an opaque with LEDs behind it that would change colors. I would need to develop a board that controls the LED with a bluetooth set up that can be connected to the phone.

Week 2 - Computer Aided Design

This is the second week of the program. We were tasked in downloading the program GitHub for desktop and downloading the archive folder for the fab lab 2016. Figure 2.1 shows the GitShell program open and generating the SSH keys.

Figure 2.1: Using GitShell to generate an SSH key
After seeing this had worked, I downloaded an archive file to my computer in order to keep track on my progress through the fab lab academy 2016. Figure 2.2 shows the code ran to download the archive file to my computer and Figure 2.3 shows that the file had successfully downloaded onto the computer.

Figure 2.2: GitShell showing the code had run and the file was downloaded successfully onto my computer

Figure 2.3: File downloaded successfully from the program GitShell

Week 2 - Project Development

This week we were tasked in designing our project and laying it out in 2D and 3D drawings. To start my final project drawings, I needed the basic dimensions of the Samsung Galaxy S5 so I could determine how big my case needed to be to hold the phone. Dimensions were found off of the following page: Samsung Dimensions. Now it was time to choose a program that I could draw up my case. Within my engineering school experience, I am most use to programs like AutoCAD and SolidWorks. But the licenses for these programs can get pretty expensive, so I wanted to try out some of the other programs suggested by Fab Academy as well as some suggested by the local students here in Alaska.
After some research, I decided to go with the program CorelDraw. CorelDraw has a nice layout and was really easy to pick up. One of the things I did like about it was it provided hints/tips when you clicked on one of the tools. This made it very easy to pick up and use. Figure 2.4 shows the layout of CorelDraw.

Figure 2.4: Layout of CorelDraw
Using this program I drew up the basic dimensions for the Samsung Galaxy S5 (Figure 2.5). From this I was able to draw up the size of the case I wanted for now (Figure 2.6). An idea I had was to have casings on the back that you would be able to snap in and out to be able to change the design on the back. A couple of the designs I have come up with are shown in Figure 2.7.

Figure 2.5: Base dimensions for Samsung Galaxy S5

Figure 2.6: Base dimensions for case

Figure 2.7: Designs for different casings on back
I also wanted to layout my basic schematic for the circuit that would control the LEDs. The program I used was called "Eagle." This program allows you to download libraries of components and then lets you choose which components you want in your circuit. With the help of Kadin, he let me know which components I would need in my circuit and how it would need to be laid out since I have little knowledge with this type of stuff. In the schematic (Figure 2.8) this shows a microcontroller that has six RGB LEDs connected to it. I chose to have six after testing a similar LED here in the lab just as is, as well as within an opaque object. These images are shown in Figure 2.9.

Figure 2.8: Schematic for basic circuit layout for LED control

Figure 2.9: LED Test and LED within an opaque object
Now it was time to model my phone case using a 3D program. After watching Dr. Neil's Academy video from this week, one suggested program was Creo. I decided to give this program a shot. It did take a long time to download, but I'm happy I waited. Through my engineering school career, I was most used to the 3D program SolidWorks. I was pleased that Creo was pretty much layed out the same way, with subtle differences. It was an easy program (for me) to pick up.
With the 2D drawings from CorelDraw, I was able to mock up a case and the basic phone in Creo as shown in Figure 2.10. My idea is that the case would be a rubber case in which the circuit board and LEDs would lay out in the case behind the phone. A button would be rigged up on the case that would control the LEDs. One push would turn on all the red LEDs, the next push would turn on all the green LEDs, and the next one would turn on all the blue LEDs. A fourth push of the button would cycle randomly through the different LEDs.

Figure 2.10: Basic case and phone assembly using the program Creo
As mentioned before, I wanted to have the option for the user to change the backing on the case. A rendered image of the 3D model with one of my designs for the back is shown in Figure 2.11. This backing would be laser cut out and be able to snap into the back of the case.

Figure 2.11:Basic design of plastic backing on case