156B Week 7

Overview of Status of Analysis, Design, Fabrication, Tests, etc.

• • Feeder fabrication done.

  • Fabrication on the cage side will be done by the end of this week.

  • LabVIEW programming is in progress (need more help)

Accomplishments from Previous Week

• • Lasercut out all the pieces needed.

  • Hopper assembly finished.

  • Reduced the weight of the new hopper to about 60 grams, excluding food pellets.

Goals for Next Week (list names after each item). Use specific and measurable objectives.

• • Finish the fabrication on the cage side

  • Have the feeder hang on the cage properly

  • Reduce the weight of the hopper to about 50 grams so that we can use a 100 g load cell (more accurate)

  • Build a low pass filter for noise filtering

  • Program LabVIEW to stop the motor when the hopper hit the grating on the cage.(stall current)

Sponsor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)

• • Our sponsor was happy about the progress. He likes the prototype that we showed him.

  • He reminded that the side of the cage that we are going to fabricate on is not actually vertical to the base of the cage, so we need to think about

    • how to properly attach the feeder to the cage.

Instructor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)

• • Possible gratings - press-fit steel bars onto grating, bend steel bars out (5/6 - in person)

    • We shaved the grating down and will try this for the prototype.

  • Use current spikes to indicate stall to stop the motor at appropriate positions instead of using a proximity sensor (5/6 - in person)

Comments from Other Students in the Class (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)

• • N/A

Risks and Areas of Concern

• • If the side of the cage is strong enough to hold the feeder, the weight of the feeder is about 800 g.

  • If the data collected from the system accurate enough to reach the sponsor's desire

  • Struggling in LabVIEW programming

Resources or Information Required but not Available

• • N/A

Schedule

• • Describe upcoming milestone

  • Update Gantt chart.

Budget (list amount spent and amount remaining)

• • $327.77 spent and $1672.23 remaining

Progress on Report and Webpage

• • Report is up to date (Revisions will be made by Friday)

  • Uploaded new CAD models