My name is Ivana, I use she/her pronouns. A strength for me is my willingness to ask questions. I am often lost, but have no problem asking for help. I also think my attention to detail is a strength of mine, as it comes in handy in the ideation and designing process. An area for growth for me is my ability to code and work with circuits, I feel like I don't have a good grasp of how it works, but I am hoping to improve those skills during this class.
The three things I am going to commit to for my documentation are:
Posting pictures and updates regularly to keep my instructor informed!
Writing detailed descriptions about the work I have been doing.
Keeping my posts organized! Last year in Wood Joinery and Turning, my posts very organized so I want to keep that up!
I chose my first design of the Golden Gate Bridge. I plan to use all 12 LEDs to represent cars driving on the road, as well as use some for the top. I will have 2 switches controlling both sets of lights, and 12 resistors on the main cables on the bridge. I will put the battery in the back.
On this project, I worked with Amalia to create this PCB of the Golden Gate Bridge. The placement of the LEDs are supposed to represent what the bridge may look like slightly lit up at night. We used 11 resistors, 11 LEDs, 1 switch and 1 battery to create this design. One thing that I will not be forgetting about PCB designs is that you really have to think about and plan ahead of time where the battery is going to go, since nothing can really go on top of it.
My top three ideas are the cow speaker (with a phone holder), the payphone design, and the jukebox. I like the jukebox design because I would love to add a modern spin to an older method of playing music. I think the payphone design would just be a really cool and unusual idea for a speaker. The strawberry cow is my cutest design, and I like how it acts as a phoneholder as well.
I got a lot of contradictory feedback about what design I should pick, but a common theme I saw was that I should make sure I think about how I will actually be achieving these designs. Many people told me that my Strawberry cow design was really cute, but could be hard to achieve and I agree. I feel as though my jukebox design is a bit unoriginal, especially since others in the class also has this idea. This leaves me with the payphone design, which I think is unique and achieveable!
This is my payphone design! I am hoping to 3D print the phone, make the boxes out of wood or MDF, and connect the two with a chord (maybe I can even buy a spriny chord to make it more phone like!) I think this design will be challenging since I will be using so many tools to make my speaker.
This is my speaker design! Below is the phone part where the speaker will go, and sit facing outward on the box. The box design is pretty simple, I am just planning to have a space for the digital project in the front of the box, and a custom volume knob.
This is the box part of my speaker design. I was not able to use cardboard to make the phone part, but I am planning to 3D print it and just make that my final. After making the prototype, I realized/learned that I need to pay more attention to the placement of all the little holes for chords. I forgot to add a hole at the bottom, and did not leave space for the digital screen I am planning to incorporate.
I completed this collaborative amplifier PCB with Max. We each connected difference pieces of the schematic, and I moved some parts on the board around. I also thought it would be nice to put our names on the corner of the board to make it our own. I think we collaborated well; we asked each other questions and were willing to put in the work to complete it. During the process, I learned that there is a lot more to moving parts on the board, since a made several mistakes that had to be corrected when laying out the pieces on the board. Some things can't be too close together, while others need to be next to some things in order to function properly. I think this will really come in handy when I create the circuit board for my amplifier.
After breadboarding, I learned the significance of the LED as a way to test out if the main parts are working. I would have never thought about using this method, and it's really interesting! I didn't know what the capacitor does, but after doing some research, I found it that it temporarily stores electrical energy.
I finished it! I am pretty happy with the bridge, and I like how the red color of the board compliments the white lights. I worked with Amalia.
Unsoldered
Soldered
I made a speaker designed like a payphone, where the speakers are in phone! I am very satisfied with how the phone part came together, since I think it is the part that posed the most challenges. However, I am most proud of the speaker came together as a whole, since it showcases the effort and attention to detail I put into all aspects of the process. If I were to do this again knowing what I know now, I would definitively use my time better and understand what I was getting myself into. Even though I ran into several issues, I know that in 2 years I will remember how to solder tiny little wires! One of the most important skills I think I learned in the building/problem solving part of this project was that attention to detail is good in moderation, but it is also essential to go through challenges with confidence. I was often set behind because I was too scared to break a wire or turn on a machine without approval beforehand, and going into this project with more confidence in my abilities as well as being okay with failure could definitely be something to work on.
Thank you so much for all your help and for an amazing semester Mr. Kleindolph! Have a great break, and see you next year!