Power Points Galore

At the beginning of the week, I began attaching the add-on pieces I had made to the main body of the module case.  I wanted to have the option to screw the top and bottom together, so I had designed (with some trial and error, thanks to the inaccuracy of the 3D printer) small parts with holes for the screws to glue onto the top half and then drilled matching holes in the bottom half.  At first, I tried to attach the little pieces with the epoxy in FreeZone, but even after leaving it to dry over night, the epoxy twisted and broke instead of the screw twisting out of the hole.  I was really hoping for super glue, but Allie had told me there wasn’t any around FreeZone or the engineering building.  I figured I would give it one more try to ask the technicians in the engineering building, so I asked Giuseppe what super glue is called here in Brazil.  The answer is Super Bonder, which makes quite a lot of sense.  Even better, Giuseppe offered to bring some from home, so Wednesday morning I was able to glue the screw holders onto my test part.  I was a little afraid that a drop of glue was just going to attach the top to the bottom permanently, but after lunch when I removed the screws, the top and bottom of the case came apart beautifully!  For the final version though, I didn’t want to risk having a drop of glue bond the top and bottom (better safe than sorry when you’re talking 42 hour prints), so I measured how far down I should glue them and used a sharpie to mark where along the curve they needed to be glued and hoped for the best.  The next morning when I checked on them, everything aligned perfectly.  Phew!

During the week I also glued in the other add-on parts and Friday once everything was dry, I went to set up the whole module–microphones, speakers and all–to test, but it didn’t work.  And as I have no idea how the code works, Guilherme came over to HP to try to fix it, but he couldn’t figure it out either.  It appears something in the configurations differs between the old microphone and the new one, but at least when we put the old mic back in it did still work.  No permanent damage, just no progress.

In between all of the glueing, I also spent a lot of time making power points.  With my time here almost over, I need to share what I have been doing with some of the other members of my team so they can continue modifying and improving the case as needed.  I had previously started an introduction to CAD powerpoint, so I added to that and provided some more explicit instructions about saving files such that a 3D printer can read them.  I want the lesson to be hands on though, so I created a small project that my team members can work on to get hands-on experience using Creo Parametric.  After I made the little project park, I used Creo to make the drawings for the part with front, top, and side views.  After going through the how to CAD power point, I plan to give everyone the drawing and have them try to recreate the part (this is how I learned to do 3D modeling back in high school).  Even though I will be around next week to help, I want to leave extensive documentation, so I also made a power point with step-by-step instructions on how to recreate this project in case anyone needs a refresher in the future.  I also made a power point about all of the resources I have used across the PUCRS and TECNOPUC campus so that my coworkers know where to find things as they need them.

This weekend was rather relaxing and I mostly stayed around the Casa, other than when Allie and I tried the other big restaurant suggestion Giuseppe has been offering up since week 1: a Brazilian steakhouse.  I had been wanting to go to a Brazilian steakhouse in Brazil since I found out I was coming, so this seemed like the perfect dinner for our last Saturday here.  The meat was delicious (not surprising) and we finished with a dessert that my other coworker, André, has been recommending–torta de sorvete–which is a thick layer of ice cream with merengue and chocolate on top.  This is cut into slices, and after the waiter brought out the slice lying on the plate, he then drowned it in chocolate ganache.  I was in heaven!  What a way to end the second to last week.  I can’t believe there is only one more to go!

Torta de Sorvete

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