Blog

This page is where the group will post updates and milestones about our progress.

Friday, October 13th, 2017

The best day to start blogging! We're all very excited about our project. Our budget has been approved and work is going in earnest now. Matt has his first LED strip powered up, he's now working on the three different programs we hope to have for our design review.

The first LED Strip is powered up. The strips will be mounted to the tower to serve as the light display.

Gabriel is using the information from the design students at ETH Zurich and has created a 3D model that we plan to print out to use for further work.

Initial CAD Design of the Light Tower

We're being guided by Markanthony, who's keeping us on task and pointed where we need to be. It's all coming together! Next blog will be posted before the Design Review on October 25th. Check back soon!

Friday, February 16th, 2018

So, it's a little past October 25th, 2017 but we are still making progress! It is a new semester in the Epics program and the Light Tower team has gained four new members and one has left. The team is currently in the process of 3D printing the model tower that will go on display at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose.

Second CAD Design of the Light Tower with added crossbeams for additional support

Monday, February 26th, 2018

It's been a busy week but we managed to finalize the CAD Design for the tower. The cross-sectional beams in between the levels of the tower proved to be troublesome to print and assemble so they were removed. Additionally we added a design for a podium to the CAD file where the tower will rest upon and rotate. We will begin 3D printing the joints and legs for the tower immediately and hopefully have it assembled by next week.

Final CAD Design of the Light Tower complete with the glass display, podium, and rotating turntable

Wednesday, March 21st, 2018

The majority of March was spent troubleshooting the printing and assembly of the tower as the initial print had many joints that did not fit together. We went back to edit and improve the CAD Design and printed it for a second time which also proved to be unsuccessful due to the joints being unable to handle weight of the tower effectively. After a few weeks of careful editing and simulations, we managed to successfully print the tower.

First successful 3-D print and assembly of the Light Tower structure

Monday, March 26th, 2018 - Friday, March 30th, 2018

Following some encouraging and productive feedback from the design review, the team had plans to spend the majority of Spring Break working on the tower. Thanks to all our efforts, we managed to assemble all the lights on the tower without running into any structural difficulties on the second day.

LED Strips being mounted to the tower and wired to the ArduinoMEGA

The next few days were spent working on our respective fields. Scott and Daniel worked on the wiring and programming of the lights while the rest of the team worked on the building the podium and a rotating turntable that would allow the tower to revolve without the wires being tangled. The solution was found with a combination of a custom turntable, a slip ring, and a ball bearing. Additionally the first few patterns were successfully uploaded and the lights on the tower were lit for the first time.

Lights on the tower are all successfully turned on with the "Rainbow" pattern

With the conclusion of Spring Break, the team headed into the final stages of the project. We began coordinating with the Tech Museum dates for installing the tower and passing all necessary security tests.

Wednesday, April 11th, 2018

It's a bittersweet feeling as we record our final blog post for the Light Tower Project but today was delivery day! The team headed over to the Tech Museum to install the Light Tower to the gallery. The installation went relatively smoothly aside from some minor motor issues. The tower is complete with five different patterns including a color-blind pattern and a rotating turn table.

The Light Tower was installed in the Exploration Tower in the Tech Museum in San Jose, CA and will remain there for visitors to enjoy up until mid May.

That's it for this blog! We want to give a big thank you to all of our partners and supporters for believing in us and making this project possible. It was definitely a rewarding and educational experience for each and every one of us and we hope Tech Museum visitors can enjoy the Light Tower just as much as we enjoyed creating it. Stay tuned with SJSU EPICs and members of the Light Tower team for future projects.

SJSU Light Tower Team signing off!! :)