Time has really flown by over the course of SEED,can’t believe we already in the sixth week, one more week to go.Anyway,I started off this week with mapping out were in the OEDK our noise detection devices would be mounted.This was done to make sure the entire OEDK was covered and it turns out the basement alone needs twenty devices, which cost about sixty dollars each.We planned on making a device which costed less than a hundred dollars and we actually met that objective.

After that, the team and i went on to perform a validity test,which involved finding out what maximum range our device could effectively pick up noise. And so we mounted the device 8ft high, played a sound at 80db first at 5ft then 10ft,then 15 till we reached 20.We did this exercise three times and at every trial we found the very same results, the device detected noise up until 15ft,anything above that was out of range. The device passed our test because it was designed to cover a radius of 15ft. We closed the day off with ordering materials needed to make five devices as we were instructed to make five.

On Tuesday,Audrey and I dived into designing the final casing that we were going to use while Dylan worked on writing assembly instructions for the device with regards to wiring. Clement on the other hand,worked on the perf boards and by the day’s end, we all had finished our tasks.

Yesterday was a day planned for assembling our components into the casing we had designed and then testing to see if it worked as expected but after the morning meeting, all that changed. Dr Wettergreen first taught us how to sandblast and later suggested we use standoffs in an effort to reduce the amount of wood used in creating the case and after some discussions,we moved forward with idea.This meant we had to re design our case and thats what the team jumped into.

With that idea in motion,we ordered different types of standoffs,plastic ones for the electronic components and aluminium standoffs for attaching the back and front layers. We also made a couple of cardboard prototypes from the ideas we had on the final casing design until eventually we came to an agreement on one design that we were to laser cut today.

And so we begun today with laser cutting wood into the front and back plates and  laser cutting and sandblasting the acrylic that is going to be used on the face on the device.This was done while waiting on the electronic components we had ordered the previous day, which arrived just after lunch.The plastic standoffs were exactly what we wanted but that was not the case with aluminium standoffs and so they had to be returned.We placed a different order,on much smaller ones from the very same company we bought them from and hopefully,they will be here by tomorrow so that we move forward with mounting all the components on the plates, attaching the plates together and then testing our device.

 

 

One more thing, we had quite a great time today at SEED lunch.The guys ordered Italian and we talked about life after graduation in Africa.

Till NEXT THURSDAY!!!!!