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Hello Post
My name is James, and my design and engineering strengths are that I can follow instructions well and understand directions quickly. My design area for growth is I need to work on ideating quicker and coming up with many designs to work with.
Three things I want to commit to this year about documentation are:
I want to make sure to take a lot of photos during my projects to make it easy to understand my design process
I want to make sure to make my page easily readable and organized
I want to take time to make sure I have all the information when I write down information on my oage
PCB Ideation
The design that we chose was a robot. We thought that it would be easy enough to get the shape of the robot down, but that the curves in the arms would be difficult. We also had the lights in mind, and with a robot, we could use to lights to light up the eyes, and also the body of the robot to give a clear image of what it is supposed to be. Expanded Design:
PCB Schematic + Board Design
For our PCB schematic and design Safiya and I decided to go with a parallel circuit design, and we wanted the Leds to act as parts of the robot. We used a few LED holes and arranged them around the body of the robot to create a screen type design in the middle. We also added two LEDs for the eyes, and one at the top. We wanted the design of our the body of our robot to look somewhat natural, and so we chamfered the edges to make it less boxy.
One thing that I'll remember about printed board design is that the placement of items on the board is important, is sometimes necessary, and can create a better design
Speaker Design Ideation
My 3 favorite design ideations that I had were:
A jukebox
A tree
And Jenga Blocks
I think obviously a jukebox would fit the theme of a speaker because it plays music, and is retro so that would add to the design
The tree design I thought would be cool because I could attach hinges on either side of the tree, and have it open up to reveal the speakers, and it would be a cool design even when it is not playing music
The Jenga Blocks are my favorite design because it would allow me to create an interesting base, and if I am able to I could make the blocks interchangeable so that I can create different designs and directions that speakers could be oriented
Out of the feedback that I got from the Post-it notes the things that I want to keep in mind going forward are:
To try and keep my design simple and, if I do go for the Jenga blocks, to have a way to make them interchangeable. I also have to keep in mind how I am going to connect the speakers so that they don't have to be connected, but can still transfer the same signal between different blocks
In-depth design idea:
I think that this is going to be a pretty complicated project for me to complete because it is going to be a lot of separate parts, and it will also be a connection not through wires which may or may not work. I will be spending time outside of class to work on the project, likely troubleshooting the connection of the blocks.
I am challenging my current skill set because the circuit that I will use for my speaker design is going to be pretty complicated and will have multiple pieces. The pieces will all have to be the same size so that all the parts will fit together correctly, and that they actually connect to each other
Speaker Design Modeling
Rhino Model:
For my 3D model on Rhino, I made each block I would use in the model and arrayed them in a flat line. There are three different kinds of blocks that I am going to create:
The Charging Block. There is only one charging piece. It has a charging port, a circuit board, and metal circles along the top and bottom to transmit the electric current
The Speaker Block. There are two speaker blocks. They are enclosed pieces, with the only opening being for the speakers. They have metal circles along the top and bottom to transmit electric current
The Filler Block. All the rest of the blocks (all 6) are filler blocks. They are fully enclosed pieces that only transmit electric current through the metal circles on the top and bottom
Cardboard Model:
For my cardboard model, I needed to test the spacing of all my pieces and mainly make sure that all the components fit and that the press fit actually worked. At this point, I also decided only to make three blocks because I would not have enough materials for more than that.
Bread Boarding for Speakers:
Without Bluetooth
With Bluetooth
Something that I understand about the circuits now that I have actually prototyped it is how the resistors work, and how the circuit has a ground running through the whole thing
A part that is a complete mystery to me is the "isolated DC 12 to DC 5 converter". It's function is to convert from one voltage level to another
Amplifier PCB Design:
AMP PCB Design:
This is the board that Lucy and I designed. We made it smaller and a little bit longer (because my design is more rectangular). I learned a lot about circuits and how each of the different parts works together to translate a signal. I also learned about how the sound knob works, and how it dampens or strengthens the amount of sound going through
Shaped Partner PCB:
For this project, I worked with Safiya to create a custom PCB board design. The original idea for our shaped PCB board was to make a robot with lights on the front in the place of eyes, an antenna, and a bunch around the center of the robot to act like a screen. I am happy with the product especially because I had to remove an incorrect piece, and I was able to do so without having the wires stick out. But if I could change something I would have used the smaller LEDs because they fit the design better.
Amplifier PCB (For Speaker) :
Before
After
Enclosure Progress:
Final Progress:
I was able to finish my speaker enclosure, and the only thing I still want to do is add a finish to my wood. I skipped the digital project, and I'm glad I did because it would not have added much to my project. Also, credit to Ved for creating my volume knob.
Final:
The goals for my amplifier were to have a working speaker that did not have a connected circuit and to finish the project this semester. I was able to complete my goals and was really surprised I finished it on time.
I made a jenga-block inspired speaker which is composed of three separate blocks that connect through external copper pads
I am most satisfied that it works because I did not know it was going to work until 2 days before I finished
If I were to start over I would have tried to figure out the logistics of soldering to my copper part because it required a different melting point
Something I learned this semester that will still be with me is how to solder because I spent so much time soldering
I was able to finish my project, but I am working to make it work more consistently
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