Final Result

INTERACTIVE SHOWROOM

On this page you can follow all the steps that I’ve been given to reach the final result. The Interactive showroom.

I worked with the idea of having mobile spaces making possible new forms of artistic creativity in the furniture exhibition. This space is enabled so that designers, scenographers, artists… etc. can develop their exhibition creativity combining all the artistic fields.

It is conceived as a multipurpose space where the furniture is the main subject. For this, a light support structure has been created in which different daydreams and sets are hanged. Punctual motors in specific points are used allowing us to create different spatial configurations that make the observer being participant of that set. It is be a mobile territory in which it is impossible to have similar experiences.

STRUCTURE

3D Design - Computer Aided design

Power Supply

The String

2D Design- Computer Aided design

ELECTRONICS

Boards Design - Networking and comunications

Regulator Board - Networking and comunications

Sensor Board - Networking and comunications

Motor Board - Output Devices

STRUCTURE

3D DESIGN

The first thing I did was thinking about how my project's structure should be and then I did some sketches of how it would work better. The principal concern was creating a hoist system and how I was going to support it so I thought about doing a very simple acrylic arch on top of a basement

Taking into account that the hoist system would consist of three stepper motors attached to a string I considered that the best option for allowing the vertical movement was transmitting it through a system of pulleys. These pulleys would be place on the upper part of the arch.

I designed each element of the system: the pulleys and how they were going to be placed in the structure. I thought about separating the hook and the pulley to allow its rotatory movement. It is a very a very simple way in which an elongated piece goes through the pulley and prevents it from falling down due to the geometry of this piece.

Union

Pieza by msantisteban on Sketchfab

Pulley

Poleas by msantisteban on Sketchfab

Union + Pulleys

Pieza+poleas by msantisteban on Sketchfab

I also was very concern about how I was going to be able to transmit the movement from the motors to the string. It had to be a piece that could keep a certain size of the string and that moves at the same time as the motor. I decided to base this piece in the sewing machines and its bobbin. I designed a pieces that would work as the bobbin that fit together exactly with the motor.

Bobbin

Bobbin by msantisteban on Sketchfab

I also designed the pieces that give toughness to the structure and that allows the different strings coming from the motors pass through them. For the 3d design I used Rhinoceros because it’s the best modelling program. You can observe in the 3d model the different parts that it has.

Support pieces

Pieza Pilar by msantisteban on Sketchfab

Connection pieces basement-support

Pieza Union by msantisteban on Sketchfab

The final 3d model

For the 3d design I used Rhinoceros because it’s the best modelling program. You can observe in the 3d model the different parts that it has.

3D final project1 by msantisteban on Sketchfab

Power Supply

I needed to use a different power supply than the computer one because the motors use 12V. I also had the regulator board that I fabricated on the Output devices assignment so I used this regulator for my final project. The idea was to connect 12V to the regulator board and to the motor boards. Then the regulator board reduces from 12V to 5V because the microcontrollers work at 5V and these 5V goes to each board through the I2C connection. For the power supply I used one that was in my Fab Lab. It was a 12V and 1A. I cut the wire and identify which one was GND and wich one was VCC to connect them to the regulator board.

The String

Selecting the correct string was very important because not all strings are the same and work well. I found another type of string that is used for bookbinding. This string is strong enough to support things hanging from it and its movement is very smooth when the string is stretch. . In the following picture at the left is the generic string I used first, in the middle the metallic one and in the right the one I finally used, the one that worked better.

2D DESIGN

Once I knew how I wanted my final project to be, the next step was to designing it in the computer with its real measures and start doing the cut plans. Before cutting the final structure I did a prototype in MDF in order to see if everything that I designed worked well. I tested the MDF prototype and ot worked well so I cut the pieces but this time in acrylic. I used Autocad for the plans design.

As the MDF prototype was working I decided to do the final model: the one in acrylic. I also did some lasercut tests in order to see the tolerances, but this time I used different parameters. As I had to cut acrylic I used a low power and a slow speed because I didn’t want the laser to be reflected on the metal bars that are used hold the acrylic sheet.

In the video we can see how the sheets were cut with the lasercut.

lasercut1 from msantisteban on Vimeo.

I assemble all the different pieces in order to have the real structure in acrylic with all its 3d printed parts:

In the following video you can apreciate how is the final result and each part of the structure

final2 from msantisteban on Vimeo.

ELECTRONICS

BOARDS DESIGN

REGULATOR BOARD

I did the regulator Board in the Output devices assignment.

MOTOR BOARD

As I wanted to use the Arduino libraries (wire: master writer, master reader) and this library is not working with AtTiny 44/45 I decided to use the same processor that the Fabkit, an ATMega168 . I based the design of my motor board in the Fabkit, I erased all the elements that I didn’t need and I added the ones that my board needed, in my case I added:

• 6 pin header for programming (GND, RST, MOSI, SCK, MISO,VCC)

• 6 pin header for 12V power (VCC, VCC, GND, GND) As I did in the output assignment I only needed 4 pins but I used a 6 pin header just in case I connected in a wrong position the header in order to not breaking the board.

• 4 pin connector I ² C (SCL, GND, SDA, VCC)

• 2 H-Bridge

With the aid of the datasheet the next step was seeing where I had to connect all this new things in the microcontroller. First of all I thought to connect my motors to the analog pins as in the output assignment (PINS 28,27) but I realize I couldn’t because these pins where needed to connect SCL and SDA so I had to connect the motors to another pins (PINS 1,2,9,10). As I put a 6 pin header for the procreation I needed to connect MISO and MOSI to its respective pins in the microcontroller.

As I wanted to mix both boards the Fabkit board and the one I made in the Output assignment I used the Eagle files. As I said before, I cleared all the elements I didn’t need and add the ones I needed and then I connected them to its pins. It was the hardest board I’ve done till the moment and I founded very difficult to put and connect every single element but at the end I was able to do it!

As I wanted to do three boards there were a lot of elements so I had to be very organised in order not to lose some elements.

After checking that all the wiring in my new board was correct I program it with Arduino burning the bootloader. For this I had to connect my FabISP to my board.

SENSOR BOARD

As my final project has three different motor systems activated by three sensors I did a board in which I connected the sensors. I designed the board with Eagle and with the aid of the datasheet of the microcontroller I connected the sensors to it. The capacitive sensor needs two pins: one analog pin for the entrance and another digital pin for the exit.

I connected the sensors to the microcontroller to PC1, PC2 and PC3 for the entrance pins and PD5, PD6 and PB1 for the exit pins.

After milling the board I programmed it with my FabISP burning its bootloader with Arduino.

I did all the wiring between the 4 boards with a pain wire in order to establish a communication between them. When I finished doing the wiring I started programming the master board and the slave ones. I decided the sensor board to be the master board because this way the sensor board receives information from each sensor and it sends the information to the slave boards that will be the motor boards.

I started programming the four boards with each sketch. I did two different sketches: one for the sensor board that worked as de Master and another for the slave boards (the motor ones). I gave the same direction to the slave boards (wire begin(1)) because I only had one sensor. This way only one sensor was connected to the master board and when this received changes from the sensor, it sends to all the slaves to turn on its led so the four leds turned high and to move each motor.

SENSORS

I did the final sensors with the vinyl cutter using copper vynil. I had to do some tests in order to see which parameters were the best for this material and at the end I reached the conclusion that its parameters were: 3cm/s speed and 120gf of strength. These parameters are different that the ones used for the normal vinyl, I slower the speed and put more strength for the copper.

cutting the sensors from msantisteban on Vimeo.

Them I soldered the wires to the sensors and connected them to the sensor board. I put the sensors in its place.

In the following video you can apreciate that the final sensors worked well with the last Arduino sketches.

sensors test from msantisteban on Vimeo.

I covered these sensors with white vynil so that you couls not see the copper.

PROGRAMMING

All the electronics are based on Networking and Communications between boards though I2C. I considered having 4 different boards connected between them. These boards were designed and programmed in the Networking and Communication assignment. In this assignment I designed the motor boards and checked if they worked well moving the motors, I also designed the sensor board with three different sensors and I could check that they worked also well.

This is a scheme of how the electronics works.

The sensors board: is receiving data from three different sensors. This board will be acting as the Master board because this way it can send the data through I2C to the slave boards.

The motor boards (X3): these boards are receiving data from the master board. These boards give orders to the motors. When to move and when to stop.

So far I had been testing the sensors with LEDs boards as the output in the Networking and communications assignment but I wanted to put together the sensors and the motors so I started to do another Arduino sketch: I used the same Master sketch but I updated the Slave one, instead of turning on and off the LED board I added the motor movement:

After doing the final sensors I had to do the final sketch for my final project because the one I had wasn’t the final program I wanted to use. I did a scheme of how I wanted the program to be and what I added was giving a state to the motor: when the motor is down its state is “D” and when the motor is up its state is “U” and every time there is a change in the values of the sensor this state changes. This is the program scheme:


	 

//Mastertressensores:


#include <CapacitiveSensor.h>
#include <Wire.h>
CapacitiveSensor   cs_5_17 = CapacitiveSensor(5,17);
CapacitiveSensor   cs_6_16 = CapacitiveSensor(6,16);
CapacitiveSensor   cs_9_15 = CapacitiveSensor(9,15);
void setup() {
cs_5_17.set_CS_AutocaL_Millis(0xFFFFFFFF);     // turn off autocalibrate on channel 1 - just as an example
cs_6_16.set_CS_AutocaL_Millis(0xFFFFFFFF);     // turn off autocalibrate on channel 1 - just as an example
cs_9_15.set_CS_AutocaL_Millis(0xFFFFFFFF);     // turn off autocalibrate on channel 1 - just as an example

Serial.begin(9600);
Wire.begin(); // join i2c bus (address optional for master)
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
  
}
byte x = 0;

void loop() {
  // read the sensor:
  long total1 =  cs_5_17.capacitiveSensor(30);
  long total2 =  cs_6_16.capacitiveSensor(30);
  long total3 =  cs_9_15.capacitiveSensor(30); 
  
      if (total1 > 99){
        x = 1; 
        digitalWrite(13,HIGH);   
        Wire.beginTransmission(1); // transmit to device #1
        Wire.write(x);              // sends one byte
        Wire.endTransmission();    // stop transmitting
        Serial.println(x);
       }
     else{ 
       digitalWrite(13,LOW);
        x = 0;
        Wire.beginTransmission(1); // transmit to device #1
        Wire.write(x);              // sends one byte
        Wire.endTransmission();    // stop transmitting
        Serial.println(x);
       }


       if (total2 > 99){
        x = 1; 
        digitalWrite(13,HIGH);   
        Wire.beginTransmission(2); // transmit to device #2
        Wire.write(x);              // sends one byte
        Wire.endTransmission();    // stop transmitting
        Serial.println(x);
       }
     else{ 
       digitalWrite(13,LOW);
        x = 0;
        Wire.beginTransmission(2); // transmit to device #2
        Wire.write(x);              // sends one byte
        Wire.endTransmission();    // stop transmitting
        Serial.println(x);
       }

       if (total3 > 99){
        x = 1; 
        digitalWrite(13,HIGH);   
        Wire.beginTransmission(3); // transmit to device #3
        Wire.write(x);              // sends one byte
        Wire.endTransmission();    // stop transmitting
        Serial.println(total3);
       }
     else{ 
       digitalWrite(13,LOW);
        x = 0;
        Wire.beginTransmission(3); // transmit to device #3
        Wire.write(x);              // sends one byte
        Wire.endTransmission();    // stop transmitting
        Serial.println(total3);
       }
      
}

Slave Sketch


	 

// Slavemotor


#include <Stepper.h>
#include <Wire.h>
const int stepsPerRevolution = 200; //steps in a revolution
volatile int y = 0;
Stepper myStepper(stepsPerRevolution, 3, 4, 5, 6); //motor pins

void setup() {
  Wire.begin(3);                // join i2c bus with address #1
  Wire.onReceive(receiveEvent); // register event
  myStepper.setSpeed(60); // set the speed at 60 rpm:
  pinMode(13,OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {


if (y==1){
myStepper.step(stepsPerRevolution); // step one revolution  in one direction:
myStepper.step(-stepsPerRevolution); // step one revolution  in one direction:
y=0; 
}


}

// function that executes whenever data is received from master
// this function is registered as an event, see setup()
void receiveEvent(int hola){
volatile int x = Wire.read();    // receive byte fom wire  

if (x==1){
digitalWrite(13,HIGH);
y=1;

}
else{
digitalWrite(13,LOW);
}
}