-  Week 19  +

project development

Tasks

  • Complete your final project
  • Track and document your progress
  • Tracking the Progress

    In this week, we have to track progress of our final project and document it. It's an important stage in the whole process where I can take a pause, look back, learn from the shortcomings and plan further accordingly. As far as time table is concerned, I am half way through. To get a clear picture of where I stand currently, I am answering the following questions:

    1. What is the deadline? And how much time do I have left?

    The deadline that I had set for my final project to get finish, in every aspect, was 13 June 2017 but now I am extending it to 15 June 2017. Since my final project presentation is on 19th, I should have my final project in working conditions by 15 June so that three full days after that are enough to reflect upon my work and make small video and presentation accordingly. There are number of factors that have affected my time table which I will be discussing here. I have 10 days in hand before final presentation excluding today that is 7 June 2017.

    2. What tasks have been completed, and what tasks remain?

    I have designed and drawn all the components and assembly of the final project and have also prepared fabrication data for the same. I am yet to take a call on how am I going to fix the servo motor in-place. I had created circuit boards both for the bridge and the node in the previous week so what is remaining is to create two more circuit boards of the nodes and programme them.

    As per the schedule, by now, I should have all 3D printed, CNC milled and laser cut components ready. What has remained out of these are a few 3D printed parts and CNC milling of the opening. Since, the shutter's assembly requires 7- 3D printed components per shutter for it to be fixed in the opening. In total I require 28- 3D prints, which takes a lot of time. We have one 3D printer and 8 fab academy students, along with other university students using it, printing them in a single go is not possible. So I am printing them in parts during nights, which is taking time.

    3. What has worked and what hasn't?

    Mostly everything has worked so far than composite shutters. The thickness of the shutters was more than what I had expected. To fix the panels, I have considered 4 mm thick slots in the pivot hinge. But the thickness of the composite panel is varying. Not only this the weight of the composite panel is more than I had calculated based on the coupon I hade made in the composite week. To make an appropriate choice I also made 4 mm thick MDF shutters of the same size. Then I compared thier respective weights. Following images will show the comparision all three materials, acrylic, MDF and composite.

    4mm tk Acrylic Panel

    9 Layered Composite Panel

    4mm tk MDF Panel

    MDF is the lightest, weighting approximately 145 grams, where aswWith similar profile cut size of 20mm x 30 mm, acrylic piece weighs approx. 260 gms and composite- 453 gms. Composite panel weighs 3 times the weight of MDF panel and 1.75 times of acrylic, making it the heaviest amongst all. I am keeping the MDF panels as a safe option in case I am unable to make appropriate composite panels.

    This whole testing process gave me an idea that I can play around with many different types of shutter panels in future. All are interchangable allowing many permutations and combinations.

    4. What questions still need to be resolved?

    The most important part of my project is coding and networking. I have to ensure that my input and output device are working properly. The circuit is going to perform a very crucial role in working of my final project. From design point of view, I still need to figure out how many shutters I should provide- 3, 4 or 5. So far I am sticking to 4no. of shutters and have designed everything accordingly keeping wall and opening dimensions that could accomodate 4 shutters.

    5. What will happen when?

    Production as slowed down, but I am pretty confident that it won't overshoot the deadlines I have set in my time schedule. I have started multi-tasking, doing electronics and mechanical production side by side. I will finish 3D printing by 8 June and electonics production and programming by 11 June, both two days later than expected.

    By 13 June, entire final project should be assembled including electronic circuits and motors. And lastly, by 15 June, I will be in position to make presentation sheet and video.

    6. What have you learned?

    I very first thing that came to my mind when I read this question is how significant documentation is! While learning new concepts and performing various tasks at Fab Acadamy, I also learned why documentation is important. Unfortunately, when I was to reach half way through to the course, my laptop and external backup drive was stolen from the university premises. This incident shattered me badly, where I not only lost all fab academy data, which was yet to be documented, but also all personal data and professional work that I have done so far in last 15 years. Doing most of the excersises again made me always fell short of time to do following week's work.

    Any future student, who ever read this page, I have a suggestion for you, PLEASE DOCUMENT ALL YOUR WORK WHILE YOU ARE DOING IT. It's an important habit that needs to be addressed and developed. This is one thing that I have learned and have realised it's impotance, alomst at a time when fab academy course's current cycle is nearing its end.

    On personal note, journey so far has been very refreshing and fruitful. Realising my final project right from conception to its execution has given me immense satisfaction and great confidence in dealing with digital means of fabrication.

    At technical level, its a huge step forward for me. I learned a great deal about every new thing I fitnessed, right from making my own website to learning new CAD modelling tools and CAM tools to learning digital machining. Electronics and programming by far has been the most challenging task for me. But its just a beginning, I am hoping to do more complex and detailed work in electronics.

    Stuffing printed circuit boards, 3D printing and CNC milling are the processes that I enjoyed doing the most. Learning about how molding and casting is done and how various composites are made, are the highlights. These tasks allowed us to get a little messy, which I enjoyed actually. I am certainly going to try using natural fibres like bamboo for my next composite project in near future.

    Never reacted in person, but when my instructors and fellow students say "CNC ka kuch poochna hai, Ashish ko poocho." meaning- If someone wants to do CNC milling, ask Ashish! :D It makes me feel happy. I am sure when people from my lab are going to read this, they will have a pleasant smile on thier faces.

    Every individual in our lab have some skills and strengths different than each other, this good mix of people not only helped us successfully carried out all our group works, but also created a -help each other- environment. Working together and learning together is something that I really appreciate about CEPT fablab and Fab Academy. Last but not the least, How to manage time? was the biggest learning. Time Management, an umbrella, under which all what I just mentioned above falls. I honestly feel it is one of the pillars of doing Fab Academy successfully. This is a gruelling coursework, where students learn new things every week and document it at the same time. It requires good time management, which I acquired over the period of last 6 months.

    This is not an acknowledgment section of my website, but still it wouldn't make this page complete without thanking those who taught me how to give. I would like to thank everyone in our lab, all staff members and fellow students for lending me their workstations all throughout the course, especially after I had lost mine. Urvi, Rudra and Tapan thanks for allowing me to use any system in the lab whenever it was free and no one was using it. Specifically, I would like to thank Avishek, Siddharth and Mohit for letting me use thier workstation, whenever I needed them despite of the fact the they also had work to do. I did most of the photoshop editing on and pushed data through Avishek's system, most of the linux related work was done on siddharth's system and electronic designing and programming was done on Mohit's system. Thank you boys! I learned the most important lesson of my life, - Teamwork is not just about doing work together, but also about helping each other during crisis, especially when you know you also have the same deadlines to deal with.

    Following are the components that i have made so far. Exicted to see my final working prototype!

    Bridge and Nodes

    CNC milled Composite panel for window shutters

    Laser cut MDF panel for window shutters

    3D printed Pivot Hinge part for the window sill

    3D printed Pivot Hinge part, to hold window shutter at the base

    3D printed Pivot Hinge part for the window Lintel

    3D printed Pivot Hinge part, to hold window shutter from the top