Final Project Journal

Similar Projects :

Fusion 360:

I used Fusion 360 for 2D modelling and 3D modelling.

at first I created a sketch of cubes ( 16-18) cube to imagine the connection between cubes and take decision what to use for this connection

I used laser cutting for fabricating these cubes, After fabrication i decided to use M3 screws , washers, nuts instead of 3D printed pins

screws : as a connecting rod

washers : to act as spacers to reduce friction during movement

nuts : to control distance and movement

Servo Motor disc :

the servo disc ( sold in market) didn't fit the servo motor metal design so i had to fabricate a servo motor disc to be attached on servo horn

The design was a circle was holes " 4 holes for crank mechanism shafts " and other 2 holes for servo horn

all fixtures were made using M3 screws

Servo Motor Mount:

I made a stand for servo motor connected between base and top of design to fix servo motor position

Crank mechanism shafts:

I fabricated shafts with different length to test motion

I tried connecting long shaft with short shaft inside the motion tracking slot

The friction was so high , the perfect length was 3/4 the required length

Shaft pins:

pins connect between cube that transfers motion to other cubes and crank shafts

i fabricated pins similar to screws but longer and have a wide cap to prevent any slippery

Slot motion tracking:

slot created to help in changing the rotary motion to linear

the slot is created behind the moving cubes

Enclosure

simple box with tabs and T-slots

openings for potentiometer and on/off button

front side has a wide opening "as a window screen" for cubes

Fabrication Phase:

3D printing:

• I used 3D printer for pins connect between cube that transfers motion to other cubes and crank shafts

• pins similar to screws but longer and have a wide cap to prevent any slippery

Laser Cutting :

• The Fabrication of whole design trials was made using plywood and laser cutting

Cubes " Large scale"

Laser Trials

Shafts and servo disc

Parts fabrication

Real Circuit components:

Power Source:

External Power Source " 5V " Adapter

"Operating the whole system"

• The project portability wasn't an aspect , being installer in a position and controlled through switch was the logic connection so using a battery was excluded.

• all components of the circuit (servo motor specially) power was 5V, so the decision was taken to use a 5V adapter

• I wanted all components to have the same power and ground.

Arduino USB cable " Loading code on Arduino"

• Using cable to upload code on Arduino UNO board.

Programming Phase:

The coding was divided into 3 phases:

1-Manual Mode

2- Automatic Mode

3- integration through on/off switch

Manual Mode:

• Using Potentiometer to control manually servo motor movement

• Potentiometer connected to analog pin

• Serial Monitor to see the motion variations

• Mapping to control the variation between servo range and potentiometer range

Code:

#include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo; // create servo object to control a servo

int potpin = A0; // analog pin used to connect the potentiometer

int val; // variable to read the value from the analog pin

void setup() {

Serial.begin(9600); // setup serial

myservo.attach(9); // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object

}

void loop() {

val = analogRead(potpin); // reads the value of the potentiometer (value between 0 and 1023)

Serial.print(val);

Serial.print(" ");

val = map(val, 0, 1023, 0, 180); // scale it to use it with the servo (value between 0 and 180)

myservo.write(val); // sets the servo position according to the scaled value

Serial.print(val);

Serial.println();

delay(200); // waits for the servo to get there

}

Automatic Mode:

• Servo motor movement is controlled by LDR sensor

Code:

int lightval;

int lightpin=A1;

int tm=100;

int servopin=9;

#include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo;

int angle;

void setup() {

Serial.begin(9600);

pinMode(lightpin,INPUT);

myservo.attach(servopin);

pinMode(servopin,OUTPUT);

}

void loop() {

lightval=analogRead(lightpin);

Serial.println(lightval);

delay(tm);

angle= lightval/5;

myservo.write(angle);

Serial.println("anlge is");

Serial.println(angle);

}

Integration:

• Switching between manual mode and automatic mode through on/ off switch

Code:

int lightval;

int lightpin=A1;

int tm=100;

int servopin=9;

#include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo;

int angle;

void setup() {

pinMode(2, INPUT);

Serial.begin(9600);

pinMode(lightpin,INPUT);

myservo.attach(servopin);

pinMode(servopin,OUTPUT);

}

void loop() {

if (digitalRead(2) == HIGH){

int potpin = A0; // analog pin used to connect the potentiometer

int val; // variable to read the value from the analog pin

val = analogRead(potpin); // reads the value of the potentiometer (value between 0 and 1023)

Serial.print(val);

Serial.print(" ");

val = map(val, 0, 1023, 0, 180); // scale it to use it with the servo (value between 0 and 180)

myservo.write(val); // sets the servo position according to the scaled value

Serial.print(val);

Serial.println();

delay(200); // waits for the servo to get there

}

else

(digitalRead(2) == LOW);{

lightval=analogRead(lightpin);

Serial.println(lightval);

delay(tm);

angle= lightval/5;

myservo.write(angle);

Serial.println("anlge is");

Serial.println(angle);{

}

}

}

Project Modules:

1. Crank Mechanism

2. Servo motor mounting

3. moving cubes

4. Horizontal Slot for motion tracking

5. Electronics mounting

6. Enclosure

Crank Mechanism

Servo motor mounting

moving cubes

Horizontal Slot for motion tracking

Electronics mounting

Enclosure

cubes Mounting

Integration :

1. cubes mounting

2. servo mounting

3. connecting servo disc with crank mechanism and cubes

4. crank mechanism mounting

5. mounting electronics

6. enclosure assembly

servo disc with crank mechanism shafts

Frame with tracking slot , servo motor mount and crank shafts

Feedback:

• I tried to have feedback through all project phases

• I got stuck mainly in construction parts of the project

• After fabricating cubes and attaching them together, the crank mechanism didn't work and the system was heavy in movement

• I got stuck in slider crank mechanism:

1-Fusion 360 joints , I watched some tutorials on YouTube to help me understand how it works

2- I tried some manual tutorials

• Eng. Sherif Advice:

1. He advised me to reduce the number of cubes into 2 cubes instead of 18 cube

2. Use simple crank mechanism " 2 rods instead of 4"

3. Make the whole system adjustable through washers and long M3 screws

• Eng. Amany:

1. Her guidance in screws, nuts and washers size and usage as i had no previous experience in using them.

• Eng. Esraa, Sara helped me in screws fixations.

Cubes connections:

After a lot of research , i decided to use normal M3 nuts and screws

Some connection examples:

Mistakes and pitfalls:

• Estimating dimensions of crank mechanism

• Friction force between connections

• Large design ( 18 cubes)

How to avoid :

• Reduce Design whole dimensions

• use normal screws and nuts to be free in connection trials instead of special 3D printed pins/ screws

• Consider enclosure before system

• good mount and positioning of servo motor would be helpful.

• If I had more time, I would enlarge the scale of project to be 18 cube instead of two.

• Work more on slider crank mechanism that can fit any architecture kinetic façade

• Make an interior space " a room" to visualize the idea in real way