John Stiepleman
A design/engineering strength and area for growth:
In terms of a strength, I think I’m good at improvising and working through issues. That also means that I tend to need to mess up to move forward with things. I think I could improve by thinking my ideas out more thoroughly.
What does good project reflection look like? Where will you need to be attentive in your own documentation practice?
Good project reflection is well thought out and not scraped together at the end. It lasts throughout the project, not an individual part of the project you do post-project but something done with intention. I think I’ll need to take a lot of photos. I’m not going to want to use every photo I take so taking more in order to find the ones that work is going to be important.
The goal of this project was to make a functional circuit with 3 LEDS and resistors connecting to a switch and going to ground.
I learned how to use the Eagle program and how to print our circuit with Bantam tools.
This is a circuit containing a switch, 3 LEDs, and resistors. We printed it using an application called Bantam Tools. We learned how to create circuits on the application called Eagle and then switched it over to Bantam Tools to print. That whole process was new to me so I guess I learned a lot pretty quickly.
These are the pieces for a box that, using digital joinery, will hold together when printed. I learned how to create these in rhino and then print it into the MDF board.
This is my breadboard. It holds my circuit that will be put into my speaker. It contains a bluetooth and analog connection to play audio. I learned how to construct this by following a schematic online. Also I got a lot of help from my classmates.
Above are a series of sketches I did to brainstorm my speaker's structure. I am going to go with the triangular pyramid in the second image (from left to right).
I chose this design as a simple alternative to a box. I'm going for a speaker with really good sound quality but it looks kind of terrible just as a box. Also the speakers point up so the sound will be more directed at the listener when the speaker is on a desk. I was going to do just a box but during the critique people talked a lot about this one. So here we are.
Here's my milled circuit board. I used eagle and then bantam tools to design and then cut it out.
Above are my board file (left) and schematic file (right) for my milled circuit board. The board file was uploaded to bantam tools and milled out onto the copper. This schematic file is to show the computer which connections to make. Whereas the board file is how it all fits onto the actual material.
Above are images of my cardboard prototype. It's going to be really different in constructing with wood as the thickness plays a large role, but it's a helpful jumping off point.
To the right is my soldered circuit board. Although not visible the speakers are connected as well. I had a lot of mess ups with soldering so it's taken a lot of extra time to finish soldering.
To the left is a number of cuts I've made as my speaker progresses. I have some angles that aren't as they should be but overall I'm doing alright with pacing. I need to cut a couple triangles to finish the prism.
To the left is my two top pieces. In addition, the holes were cut into one of the pieces to hold the speakers and the on and off switch.
To the left is my two side triangle pieces along with the base piece. The height of the triangles is off along with the length of the base piece.
What am I most satisfied with?
The fact that I have working speaker is just so crazy to me. I felt a little like I was putting random stuff together until it turned on and I could play music.
If you were to start over, knowing what I know now what would I do differently?
I would start knowing how to do my angle cuts properly. That would cut off about half the time I needed. In addition, I had a lot of soldering mishaps and so I would take my time soldering.
What is a lesson from this class I'll take to future projects?
A lot of the skill involved in this class is thinking ahead. Where am I going to put my speakers? Are the dimensions right for later? Do I have a method of access to my speakers? This class is great practice in taking everything in account. The development of that skill is something I'll take everywhere I go.
My project is below. As you can see it's taped up instead of glued which is indicative of running out of time.
