Week # 5

Ideation

Tell us about your assignment's idea for this week. Why do you care about this idea? What inspired you? (Please include images or links to sources of inspiration)

This week's assignment was to design, simulate, and build a simple electronic device that performs two actions

I decided to design a Tower Crane!

as a civil engineer I usually work on site, and I always liked tower cranes, and used to make manually controlled cranes model when I was young,

so I decided it's time to use the H-Bridge with a motor to make a new model

Tool Chain

Which software/machines/materials did you use in the assignment? Why?

Software Used for design and simulate the electrical cercuit: TinkerCAD

Modeling Material:

Card Board - plastic bars

Tools:

Super Glue - Tape - cutter - double face - Hot Melt Clue Gun

List of Components Used:

1 Mini DC Gearbox Motors - 2 LED 5mm (Red & Green) - 2 Resistors 220 ohm - 2 Press 2pin Push button - Bid & Small Breadboards - Plug wires - On/OFF Switch - DC Female Power Connector 5.5mm

Preparation Process

Explain the design and/or preparation process of your assignment. How did you use the tool or software to design and/or prepare your assignment before fabrication/implementation?

I started with designing the circuit on the Tinker Cad first to make sure that the components are fully functional and the desired outputs from the components are achieved, then I can go with the actual wiring and connections on the bread board, and finally I can model the final device and test

I choose the motor with gear box since the lifting will primarily require torque rather than speed, and I needed the motor to lock in place when not powered so that the load doesn't fall automatically,

then I decided to use different colored LEDs with each direction of the motor

Circuit Design

choosing the resistor for the LED light, depending on the V=IR equation, where V=9 volts, I= 20 mA then R=450ohm,

LED required Current

after finding out the value of each resistor I have using the color code calculator, I used the 560 ohm resistor as the closest value available

Resistor Color Code Calculator

I decided to operate the crane with the 9 V adaptor to get the maximum power, so I set the power source to match the voltage and the current of the one I will use

I designed the circuit depending on the H-Bridge concept to control the motor direction, yet I changed the combination of the pressed buttons so that the upper 2 buttons are connected and pressed together to operate the motor in a direction, and the same for lower 2 buttons, and for simulation on the Tinker Cad I used the "slide switches" instead of the "push buttons" so that I can turn them both ON/OFF and simulate the output

Then I added the LED lights, and made sure to connect the Anode side with the positive direction when the switches are ON, and the Cathode side with the negative direction, and each one is connected to a resistor, and each on parallels connection with the motors

Finally I added an ON/OFF switch to power the crane

Simulation on Tinker CAD

Simulation 2: the Green LED on with the Negative motor direction

Simulation 1: the Red LED on with the Positive motor direction

Circuit prototyping

I Started to make the connections on the real bread board, and tried to use the tape to group the wires together to be less missy, and to hold them in place

since I wanted to hide all the components inside the enclosure, I decided to relocate the push buttons outside on a separate mini breadboard, and connect each button with 2 wires on the corresponding locations

Development/Implementation Process

Explain the development/implementation process of your assignment. How did you use the machine/tool to manufacture or implement the design of your assignment?

I started to use the available material I have to model the crane body and the tower structure, I tried to leave enough space for the breadboard ,the wires and the motor inside the enclosure, but then I decided to move the motor on top of the enclosure to be easily attached to the wire

Modelling

1st trial with the tower in the middle of the body

1st test for the mechanism and the full control

The Final The Final Outcome

Inserting the breadboard inside the body of the crane
and used 2 crocodile connectors with the ON/OFF Switch

fixing the ON/OFF switch and the power plug in place

connecting a rail to control the lifting wire, and adding the mini control breadboard on the top of the body, and also with the LED to be visible

the final crane design

the final functional result

Community of Learning

Did you ask for feedback? What are the ideas that others have contributed or suggested? What was someone else’s idea that you built upon? How did you help your peers? How did your peers help you?

Overcoming Challenges

When you got stuck, what/who did you turn to? At what point did you have to pause to research or learn more before moving on? What are some mistakes, pitfalls, or challenges that others can avoid if they were doing this assignment?

I faced multiple challenges during the circuit prototyping and modelling

during circuit prototyping on the breadboard I connected every thing according to the circuit design, yet the motor only turned on on one direction only, I started to double check every wiring and changing the push button even removed the LED to figure out the problem, finally with the help of the Multimeter I found out that on of the wires isn't connecting any power, I replaced it and every thing worked fine.

Final Project

How can you use the skills and knowledge that you've acquired this week in your final project?

WOW!

What is the coolest thing that you've learned this week? What is something that you will never forget from this week?

Assignment Design Files

Link to Tinker CAD Design

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