Break It Apart Project

Evidence of Work

The "Break It Apart" project was the first project of our Senior STEM Engineering class. The point of the project was to disassemble an object from your house and it should have had some part of an electrical component involved with it. After disassembling our object we were tasked with researching all of the different parts involved in making it work. We then were supposed to draw an accurate drawing of the product, an exploded view, a flowchart of how it works, and describe the functions of the different parts.

When I was first told about this project, I had no idea what I was going to choose to disassemble. I searched my whole house looking for something that would be interesting to take apart until I found an old wireless keyboard in my laundry room. I was afraid this item was going to be too hard to disassemble and research so I kept looking and also grabbed an old remote that doesn't hook up to our TV anymore. The next day in class when Mr. Tronconi went around approving everyone's items I had a doctor's appointment so he did not get the chance to approve mine. This got me worried that maybe my wireless keyboard was too complex or my remote was too simple. The next day in class he approved my keyboard (I did not show him the remote) and I began to disassemble. My mom gave me this cool multipurpose tool that had a bunch of different functions and it was very helpful in the disassembling process. I started with removing the batteries from the keyboard and then started unscrewing the screws. After getting all the screws out, I tried to take the top off the bottom but it was really stuck together so I had to use a knife from my tool to get it open. When I finally got it open, there were so many parts and components I had never seen before and I really had no clue how to start the researching process. There were so many complex parts of the keyboard to I asked Mr. Tronconi what I should focus on and he replied with the circuit board. I put the research off at the moment and began to draw my first sketch of my keyboard's circuit board. The first sketch I did was not great and I tried to make it pretty accurate in size. After finishing I decided this was much too small so I made an enlarged version which I was much happier with. Then I drew the membrane layer but these were so detailed that I sort of just did the outline of it. I decided that I wanted a fresh start of drawing my circuit board so I turned to a new page and did my final drawing. I then began to research each component and how they are all connected. It was very hard to find at first but I found a few helpful websites that gave me an abundant amount of information. I focused on about nine different parts of the circuit board and wrote about their function and how they connect with others. I then made a flow chart to show how a letter appears on the screen after you press a key. I was so thankful the research portion of the project was over and was very content in the work I had achieved.

Content

Here are some of the different components in my circuit board that I learned about through the Break It Apart Project:

NRF 31504 E - This was the most important component of the circuit board. Its main functions are being in charge of wireless connections, transmitting and receiving signals, operating efficiently in low-power modes, and being very versatile (being able to be used with other wireless devices).

SPI, MMOSI, & MMISO - These are the lines that connect to the NRF. The pins on the NRF are connected through the SPI lines MMOSI is used to carry out data to the NRF and MMISO is used to send it back.

Test Points ("TP") - These are used to connect and measure most equipment, debugging, and calibration. They are mainly used to check for correct voltage levels and let the rest of the circuit know if one part isn't working correctly.

Capacitor ("C") - There are many different kinds of capacitors. These include ceramic (filtering and bypassing high-frequency signals), electrolytic (bulk filtering), tantalum (giving stable and reliant performances), and film (stability). These capacitors mainly smooth out voltage fluctuations, helping with timing, and passing AC signals while also blocking DC components.

Resistors ("R") - The function depends on the resistance value and the placement on the circuit. They play a very important role in limiting current, voltage division, and signal conditioning.

Connectors ("J") - The main function of these is to serve as a point for connections to external devices or cables to circuit boards.

Switch ("SW") - The "Switches" are important because they are in control of signals, can select different modes, and give input to users

Inductor "(L)" - These were used to filter out voltage fluctuations while also removing frequencies that were unneeded and storing energy. It also blocks AC but allows DC.

U1 - The main purpose of this was to be an operator for amplifiers, voltage regulators, and logic gates. It also deals with signal processing, control systems, and power.

Reflection

When doing the "Break It Apart Project," I felt like I actually did have a good amount of time to get all my work done. If I were given more time I think I could have made my sketches and explanations even better and done a better job at researching and understanding for my keyboard works. I think that the object I chose was a little too complex because it had so many different important parts to actually make the keyboard function. I did have the correct tools accessible to me though! I thought I was doing a good job at managing my time but I ended up having to do a ton of more work at home on the last day so maybe in the future I would do some work at home in between class periods. To improve my work I could have organized my journal a little bit better because some of my writing is very small. It was hard to research on the Chromebook because some of the websites I needed to go to were blocked so in the future I could visit these websites on a different computer at home. I think my work overall was pretty good and I am proud of all I accomplished. If I had a Logitech expert I would love to ask them questions about how it is made and put together but that is pretty far-fetched.

One thing that I thought I did a good job on was keeping my work organized and doing an efficient job at researching the different components of my wireless Logitech keyboard. As you can see above, my final page looks pretty good and I'm very proud of my proportional drawings and how much time I spent that was put into researching the different parts of the circuit board. One thing I think I could do better on was managing my time better. As I said above, I had a lot to do the very last day of the project so in the future I will not procrastinate and get my work done before the due date.

Page updated

Report abuse