This week began much as the last one ended: creating/editing CAD files and 3D printing potential prototypes. However, I’ve now moved beyond the quick, low-fidelty prints from last week and was now mostly focused on higher quality, detailed printed meant to support and align the electronic components.

However, this was mostly a troubleshooting week, trying to resolve my two biggest prototyping constraints. As predicted, the hardest aspect of prototyping this particular design is the size, both for the level of detail that I can produce and for the difficulty in removing small, hard-to-grasp support materials. I am using FDM-based Cliever printers, and thus the support material must be removed by scraping and pulling (as opposed to printers  like the Objet where the support is made of a different type of material that can be dissolved or blasted off). Because of the scale and location of support in my design, I’ve found it very difficult to remove the support material, which has made prototyping difficult. So I spent time trying speeds, orientations, and support settings, all in an effort to increase the fidelity of my prototypes. On Friday morning, I finally had a breakthrough, and by the end of the day I was printing to scale, medium fidelity prototypes.

While I was waiting for my prints to finish up, I also spent a lot of time this week preparing for the next step in my prototyping: the metal sensor. I researched materials and suppliers in Porto Alegre (and wasn’t that a challenge, trying to find the size and grade of metal I needed, all in Portuguese…) and by Thursday, had ordered material. I then searched around PUCRS’ engineering labs for drills and tools I could use.

On the weekend, we joined our new friends from Casa do Campus on a day trip to Gramado and Canela, popular tourist spots for local Brazilians. It is far up in the mountains and so we took Rôta Romantica, a scenic highway route filled with trees and beautiful views over the mountains. Once there, we toured churches and lakes, waterfalls and shopping districts. The towns themselves were founded by German immigrants and are full of European style chocolatiers, cobbled plazas, and–my personal favorite–fondue restaurants! It was a great town and great opportunity to get to make some new friends