Week 7: Finishing, Presenting, Summarizing, New Project and Flight Home

We started the job in our scissor lift some weeks ago. The first thing that we realized was that the old prototype was not stable enough and it failed in some constraints.

Then we had our first meeting with our client, and we realized that some of the design criteria needed to be changed. Our budget was reduced to 1/3 than it was.

This situation made us go back to the design criteria, then we brainstormed some solutions and passed through the matrix to select the best solution. Once we had it, we moved to the prototyping part and made some low fidelity and proof of concepts prototype. You can see some of then in the photos below.

                                  

Scissor lift Low-fidelity prototype               Crankshaft proof of concept                           Gear/Screw Low fidelity Prototype

 

 

After that we moved to our medium fidelity prototypes and we made one for the scissor lift and one for the gears/screw mechanism. After we did this prototypes, we researched more about the system and Kalen found one Bike Scissor lift that had most of the functions needed, but none of our criteria. Then we bought and moved to change this device rather than create our own scissor lift.

 

                                       

Gear/Screw medium-fidelity prototype           Gear/Screw medium-fidelity prototype                          Scissor lift medium-fidelity prototype

 

 

Finally, we worked hard in the building part to make, test and repair our device many times. We found some mistakes in our design, then we redesign and repair this problems and tested again. Our piece attached to the scissor lift and the screw was warming a lot, its two parts needs to be better attached, our screw is bending and this problem also needs to be solved, and our gear stand needs to be better attached to the scissor lift`s frame, but we solved many other problems, our gear rotates complete free from the stands and 100% attached to the axles thanks to glue, screw, bearings and one washer to keep the bearing in the right place. This washer can be part of the gear stand in the future versions. Below you can see a photo of our device with the crank mechanism. It was able to lift Kalen pretty well.

Final crank mechanism prototype

 

In the video below, you can see the first time that the screw mechanism worked. It was without the back gear stand, so the screw was not stable yet, but we were so excited to see it working that we needed to make it work in the first time that it was possible, even if it was not complete yet.

First time of screw mechanism working, with only the front screw stand.

 

Due to the brittle fixation of the gear stand to the frame of the device (only two screws, attached to two threads opened in a small sheet of steal with a tap) it was not able to lift 200 lbs as it was supposed to do. I was already expecting for this and the only thing that is needed to fix it is to drill the holes all the way trough the frame and fix it with nuts instead of open threads in the frame. But once it would not fix all the problems, we moved back to the idea of a foot press hydraulic pump and we attached it to our device. And now it can lift me – 250 lbs – pretty well. It is, now, a success.

 

 

Luis Felipe and me liked a lot this time here in Houston and we want to make something to help other OEDK members and to be part of OEDK`s history. So we are, now, working in a camera that will be placed in the front of the 3d printer and it will be controlled by any smartphone connected to the Rice Owls Wifi. It will move up/down and right/left. With this device, people will be able to see if it is all right with the printing or if it need to be restarted, if it is ready or not, then you do not need to go to the OEDK to see if it is ready or not. In the future, the same Rasberry Pi that will be used to make this device work, can be used as a dedicated computer to control the 3d printers. Then you will not need a $250 computer and a screen, you will be able to use a $10 Raspberry and your laptop or smartphone to control it by the internet and you will be able to put something to print even out from the OEDK. We will work on that during the weekend and on Monday, I hope that it will be enough time to finish it, and if it is possible, we will write other blog just about this device.

 

On Tuesday we have our flights back to Brazil. We will flight to Mexico, then to Sao Paulo and then to Porto Alegre, our city. We will arrive on Wednesday at 3PM and our classes starts at the same day at 5:35PM. We will need to run to have time to do everything.

 

 

 

Thank you for the reading, thank you for the patience with my English, and thank you, more than all, to the opportunity to be here developing projects, getting knowledge and growing as a person. Thank you

 

One Response

  1. Carolyn Huff at |

    How generous of you to leave a camera for OEDK student use!

    It was gratifying to have you and Luis, as well as other students to share your skills with the Rice students.

    Harrell and I enjoyed meeting all of you and watching you share your genius with one another.

    Reply

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