Week #5 - Journal
Ideation
Tell us about your assignment's idea for this week. Why do you care about this idea? What inspired you? (Please include images or links to sources of inspiration)
Dutch inspired windmill
This week's assignment was to design, simulate, and build a simple electronic device that performs two actions. I decided to make a windmill style gadget that turns a blade and has a LED bulb
Tool Chain
Which software/machines/materials did you use in the assignment? Why?
Regarding the software u used tinker-cad for sketching the electric circuit. Regarding the electrical components i used a 5V DC motor, a yellow LED bulb, a mini breadboard, a 220ohm resistor, an ON/OFF switch and a bunch of cables and connectors. For the housing i used scrap 6mm and 3mm plywood.
Tinker cad showing the electric circuit
Design/Preparation Process
Explain the design and/or preparation process of your assignment. How did you use the tool or software to design and/or prepare your assignment before fabrication/implementation?
Schematic view on Tinker cad
I used tinker-cad to sketch my electric circuit and make sure that everything functions as expected before the actual assembly. Its an easy process where you simulate the exact circuit with all the components, inputs and outputs and troubleshooting without the risk of killing any components due to faulty connections later on.
The motor has 2 connections, one to the 5v adapter, the other to the ground (negative) through the on/off switch. The led light has 2 connections, the positive to the 5V adapter, and the negative to the ground through a 220ohm resistor. All connections are made in parallel.
This is the link for the circuit and simulation on tinkercad.
Development/Implementation Process
After a successful simulation on tinker-cad, i build the circuit and the housing using the actual components mentioned previously.
Overcoming Challenges
What kinds of challenges or problems did you face while doing the assignment, tutorials, or exercises? How did you solve them? Did you ask for help from an instructor or peer? Please provide a link to the tutorial or article that you used to solve your problem (if any)
The most challenging and frustrating part was wire management. The idea was to make as small housing as possible and use the mini breadboard but multiple connections were needed hence multiple wires running through each other. My solution for this chaos was to use tie plastic zip ties to organize the cables.
cable management
Final Project
How can you use the skills and knowledge that you've acquired this week in your final project?
Final product in action!
The skills i learned this week was all about electronics. Understanding Ohm's law, how to use an AVO meter, how to design and make circuits and electronic devices. All of this is definitely very helpful regarding my final project. This video shows the device functioning correctly and as intended.
WOW!
What is the coolest thing that you've learned this week? What is something that you will never forget from this week?
Title of Media
Weekly Digest [OPTIONAL]
Tell us about any other cool things that you've made this week: in the Hands-on activity, tutorial examples, exercises, or any other cool mini-project that you tried out aside from the assignment.
This week during the Saturday session we had the chance to design and build our own RC sumo car using a couple of DC motors, breadboards and pushbuttons using the H-bridge circuit to control both wheels. My team, Aya, Omar and I (team AOA), decided on an aggressive design that has sloped bumpers on the front end in a half-circle configuration, We thought this would give us the highest chances for winning the battles and we did!! Team AOA is the winner! It was a lot of fun.