Skittles project

Description: In a group of three the goal was to design and build an automated Skittles dispenser using TinkerCAD, controlled by a Microbit motor. The Microbit will allow the dispenser to release 5 - 10 Skittles. My group was me(Scarlett), Rebecca, and Myra. The dispenser must have a rotating mechanism powered by a servo motor. The dispenser must have a container for Skittles and a chute for dispensing. The Microbit must be attached to the dispenser. Finally, the dispenser should not be bigger than 7" x 7" x 5".

Brainstorm: We were inspired to do a fun arcade machine design.

Below is our design:

Procedure:

1. We designed our model of our dispenser on TinkerCad first and simply just 3d printed it. We decided to use an object shaped like a scoop to dispense our skittles.

2. We made our code to drop the skittles to the bottom of our dispenser. We were able to test it out on our 3D example and it worked fine.

3. We decided to officially make our final copy of our project once our code was ready. We 3D printed a game controller/console, a tray to catch skittles, a deck for the skittles, and a claw for the arcade skittles claw machine idea

Here are some of our photos for our design:

4. We had just finished our laser cutting until we realized that we still needed to put our scoop in for our skittles. We had did our steps out of order. We did had to take off the front of the design and laser cut it so that we could put our scoop in.

5. Luckily, we were able to laser cut it again and we started to assemble everything. Myra even made some lovely designs on the dispenser! 

6. It was all going great until our scoop disconnected on the day it was due. Our scoop had disconnected from our stick and we had to re-glue it on somehow. We tried gorilla glue, hot glue, and tape, yet nothing would work. 

7. Our team had to ask Ms. Tran on how to fix it in which she gave us a great suggestion. She told us to laser cut the design of our scoop with a hole in it. We would glue the stick in the hole, and it would also make a barrier for our skittles so that the wouldn't fall out. Fortunately, it worked and we were able to present.

Here is our final design:

Reflection - SOUL

S - Strength of your work : I believe our strength was our creative design for an arcade claw machine

O - Opportunities to improve your project : I feel that if we had more time to work on our project, we could have attached something to our servo so that it could move by itself instead of us having to hold it to direct our code

U - Understanding : Our team learned how valuable time is and how to be build a dispenser like this. We had to be as productive and efficient as possible, especially when waiting for our pieces to print.

L - Limitations you encountered during this project : When our team was waiting in line to 3D print or to laser cut, it was hard to do much since most pieces were just printing and we could not construct/build anything. We had to find activities and ways to make our project look better to occupy our waiting time.

WISCR- 

Self-motivated individuals - We spent a lot of effort and time on this project. Our team came in at lunch to print pieces of our dispenser. We tried to make this project the best we could, and we were motivated to finish.

Clear communicators - During this project, our team displayed Clear Communication and were clear communicators with each other. We designated roles to oursleves so that we could finish this project as soon as possible. We all tried to contribute as much as each person could.