Mechanical design Programming

Assignment

  • Automate the machine
  • Document the group project and your individual contribution

MANDALA MACHINE - LINK TO THE GROUP DOCUMENTING

When we plugged the motors to the machine and started to let the disk spin we found out that there were too much resistance in the support. We needed to design some kind of wheel system. If we were going to get the Mandala Machine running in time we needed to split up our work, some went into programming, some documenting. Me and Halldor went into fixing the problem with the base.

This was the old base with too much resistance for the rotation disk.

Me and Halldor working on the new base.

We laser cut four weels in 3mm and 10mm Plexiglas. The design was a little bit clunky but sturdy.

We had to enlarge the size of the wheels about 2mm but when that was done the disk was spinning freely with very little resistance. Now we could plug it in again and make some programming tests.

It was clear from the start that we did not have much time for the programming. To learn Phyton in few days is impossible. Haflidi was leading the programming part because he has the most experience in that field.

The Mandala Machine - This is the final result and we are very proud of what we achieved in such a short time. We only would need two or three days to let it draw full mandala shape. Hopefully we can find time to play with it before Fab Academy 2016 is out.

This is the Fab Lab Reykjavik team: Thorbjorn, Haflidi, Sigurbjorg, Inger, Halldor and me. The only one missing in this picture is Arni. I would like to thank the whole team for great work, it was so much fun!

Other machine ideas

When I was working on this project I found ideas and solutions for other machine that has been on my mind for a long time. It´s a rotary machine that helps hunters hunt gooses in a cornfield. Two flying goose decoys are attached to this machine in the purpose go give movement to other sitting decoys.

The machine will need to rotate and also be able to let the flying decoys land on the ground. I will use two 12 volt motors and I will put both of them inside the box (not as shown on sketch).

I drew the machine in Fusion 360 because I was so curious about the movement. I have to put this project on pause until I have finished Fab Academy and my final project.