Parts Assembly

Week 4 Summary

This Monday we discussed different motors with Dr. Sama. With his suggestions, the group decided we needed to further inspect our chosen motor and determine if the motor we had could handle being able to operate at our time intervals without overheating. Robin started on the operation code for the motor and will continue work next week while waiting on the motor to come in. On Wednesday, the team traveled to the workshop to test different cuts on the extra 5 gallon bucket. We started by placing vertical slits with an angle saw on one half of the bucket. The slits were cut about an inch apart in a pattern designed to help keep the integrity of the bucket intact. We put barley seed inside of the bucket and began shaking and rotating the bucket to test if seed would come out. We found that our slits may be too wide because some barley was able to escape and that a Dremel may be a better option to cut narrower slits. Next, we taped up the slits and drilled small holes on the other half of the bucket to test the integrity of holes instead of slits. We found that the holes were small enough not to let the seed fall out. In conclusion, we know that the holes will work, but slits are prefered for ease of cutting. More testing will be done when a smaller cutting saw can be obtained. The group is currently in the process of ordering parts and adjusting design drawings.