Embedded Files
Hello Post!
Hello Post!
A design strength of mine is the mix of creativity and attention to detail; I can combine uniqueness and precision into a fun design. An area of growth is the coding or creating circuits. Freshman year was the first year I did any coding or building circuits, so I still have a lot to learn.
Three things I want to commit to in the documentation of my projects:
upload good quality and understandable images
finish my site posts on time and not wait til the end of the semester
write clear descriptions and captions
PCB Ideas
PCB Ideas
The design we chose is the flower that is circled. The circles on the inside of the flower represent where we want our LEDs to be placed on our PCB. We chose the flower because it was simple enough but also a cute design. On Rhino, the flower looks a little bit different, but our final design is still a flower.
Custom PCB Design
Custom PCB Design
Treesha and I designed a flower as our PCB. I created the design on Rhino and Treesha mostly worked on the schematic. Using Fusion we put all the pieces together and finished our design pretty nicely. Our LEDs will be placed on each of the petals, as you can see, and the battery in the middle of the flower is acting kind of like the bud in a flower.
My favorite ideas are making a speaker in an elephant and making just a regular box shaped speaker but painting a beautiful scene with a sun, flowers, and birds onto the box. There are two different elephant ideas with stars because I don't exactly know how I would build this shape yet, but I like the idea of encorporating an elephant somehow.
Peer Feedback
Peer Feedback
The overall consensus from my classmates was that the elephant would be very fun and interesting to make, more than the box painting idea. I think I just need to talk to Mr. Kleindolph and figure out the best way to design my speaker in the elephant shape, while making it stable.
Phase Two
Phase Two
This design is excellent to design and build because I can have a lot of fun with it and it connects to something important to me, elephants, and I am incorporating different materials like wood and 3D printing.
I am challenging my current skill set because I have never built something this complicated before and I have never used the 3D printer before. I have also never used speakers in designing things, but I am very excited.
Modeled Enclosure Design
Modeled Enclosure Design
This is my Rhino 8 model so far, and I think it is definitely 80% done, or even higher. I have made all of the holes that I want as of right now, including the speaker hole and the mounting holes for the speaker. The two front and back faces are all put together and made 6 mm so that I will be able to laser cut them out of wood. You can see the front of one of the phases in the photo. My 3D printed portion is also completed, as you can see in between the two front and back faces. The ears will be made out of acrylic, and there is a hole for the speaker through the acrylic ear and the wood face.
Cardboard Prototype
Cardboard Prototype
My idea is to have the front and back faces cut out of wood, my ears made of acrylic, and the body 3D printed. In my prototype, the front and back are only connected by strips of cardboard, but that is not how it will actually be built. I learned from my prototype that my speaker is going to be pretty big, so one modification if my design might be the size, but I'm not sure yet if it is really a problem.
Amp Circuit on Breadboard
Amp Circuit on Breadboard
Something about the circuit that I understand now, once I've prototyped it, is building it mostly based on the schematic provided instead of just copying an image.
Something that is still a complete mystery to me about this circuit is the role of the ferrite bead. I know I need it to connect my alligator clips to my speaker, but I have no clue what the ferrite bead actually does when it is added to the circuit. When I searched it up, the AI Overview said: "It is a type of inductor that absorbs unwanted high-frequency energy from signals or power lines and dissipates it as heat. On a breadboard, it can be placed in series with a wire to prevent electromagnetic interference (EMI)."
PCB Schematic
PCB Schematic
I worked with Carolina to create this schematic and the PCB breadboard below.
PCB Breadboard
PCB Breadboard
During this process, I learned more about what really happens when each part is connected, and my knowledge of circuit boards in general. A lot of the connections I could just guess because I knew they would have to end up connecting to ground or other parts like that.
Unsoldered PCB Board
Unsoldered PCB Board
Completed Shaped PCB
Completed Shaped PCB
I worked with Treesha, and our initial idea was just to create something simple but also cute. We thought about different things, like a rainbow or a ghost (it was around Halloween time), but we ended up deciding on a flower. I am happy with the product and how the flower turned out, but there was one resistor that slid out of place when I was soldering. This kind of messes up the look, but everything still functions properly.
Page updated
Report abuse