Diana Hoang - Arduino Problem

Diana Hoang

The design:

Materials: Arduino, light sensor, 2 servos, breadboard, many jumper cables, acrylic, crepe paper, and white ogranza fabric.
Step 1: I sketched out my idea (see slideshow)
Step 2: I tested my idea with junk paper and cardstock and then refined it.
Step 3: After refining it, I tested everything out (the big box and little box) with cardboard and hinges.
Step 4: I laser cut the real thing using acrylic and assembled everything. I made two holes in the "lid" of the box to snake the wires through so that the servos can sit hidden underneath the little box.
Step 5: I tested and made sure everything worked.
Step 6: I added the flower!

For the final project of this course, I decided to stay on theme and create something inspired by 🌺 flowers 🌸.

I did some research for inspiration on what people have done with an Arduino related to flowers, and I found many videos on blooming flowers. At the time of thinking about this project, I was also thinking about wanting to laser cut and make a jewelry holder. And so, I combined both ideas and made a jewelry dish that is a "flower" and opens up with you wave your hand over it to drop in your jewelry.

Challenges I encountered:

Adding the hinge and creating the space and mechanism for the two sides of the little box to move up and down (flower close and flower bloom).

- The first issue I encountered was that when the servo moved away, the two flaps opened, but there was nothing to push them back up and close. A fix to this was by using a piece of scrap acrylic and string to attach to the servo and flap so that they are "connected."
- The second issue was that once the servo, acrylic, and string were out of the way, the two flaps opened up very wide, and then the servo would get stuck. A fix to this was that I added a clip I found in the hinges box and used it as a "stopper." This prevented the flaps from opening too much.

What I learned:

If I could work on this exact project again, I would think of a better way to make the flower open and close. With what I currently have, it is hard to tell that the flower is opening and closing.
- Maybe I could make the flower less fluffy so we can easily see the flaps open and close.
- Maybe I can make the flower spin instead of opening and closing, so we can easily see more of a motion.

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