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External Evaluation and Feedback/Recommendations
External Evaluation and Feedback/Recommendations
Mr. Keith Christian: keith.g.christian@gmail.com
Mr. Christian is an HVAC engineer with field experience in designing air conditioning systems in commercial buildings. He has relevant experience with PVC piping and structural engineering, which is important for our project as we are trying to make our frame strong enough by using PVC pipes.
Design Questions:
Is the intent of the LEDs to train the user to aim for quadrants of the net? If so, should the net be marked to show the quadrants?
If data is collected for analysis, how is it intended to be transferred and/or viewed? Is it downloadable over wi-fi for analysis by a smartphone app?
Would there be an advantage to marking a net height on the netting? Could the LEDs be configured by switch or program to eliminate shots below the net by the user if desired?
Recommendations:
From past experience, continued coupling and decoupling of "dry fit" PVC piping leads to loose connections which may cause the pipes to be decoupled during use. The netting may prevent much of this by being tensioned to the frame.
For the "tee" fittings at the base that will not be tensioned, I would recommend adding bolts through the fittings and pipe to prevent decoupling during use.
I would also recommend that any fitting not required to be removed for storage/break down be solvent welded to prevent undesired decoupling.
Overall Product Questions
Is there a technique book included with the equipment? Much of a personal trainer's job would be improving technique.
What is the projected cost of the product? How does that align with the survey of potential buyers in your problem statement?
How would your projected product cost compare to the other products you have researched?
Jim Russell: jim.russell@therdigroup.com
Director of Engineering at The RDI Group, Industrial engineering experience
Recommendations:
Splitting the net into four quadrants to make it clear to the user if they had hit the correct quadrant would be a good feature to consider adding
Adding some sort of immediate feedback besides just having the user judge whether or not their last hit was good or not may set our net farther apart from just a standard practice net
Adding a feature the PVC to allow the user to adjust the height and/or width would be a good feature to increase the adjustability of the net
Colleen Bradner: colleenbradner@u-46.org
AP Physics C Teacher, BHS Tennis Coach
Recommendations:
Adding tape or rope to mark the different quadrants to assist our LED aiming system
Adding additional higher technology to provide more data to users regarding their hits, for example, radar gun, shot tracker, etc.
Overall Product Questions
How can it withstand external elements such as wind, rain, snow, etc?
How would the cost be affected if the product could be mass-produced?
COntinued Improvements
COntinued Improvements
We would make the following changes/improvements:
We would have added two additional hooks to the front of the net frame. This would allow the tensioning rope to be looped on the other side when needed. This would be helpful when using the other side of the net during play, as the net becomes partially blocked by the tensioning rope.
We would have added PVC cement to better connect the base legs, as these do not need to be disassembled to be transported and it would reduce the risk of these parts breaking.
We would have also created a more secure method of connecting the parts that are disassembled. Our experts suggested that repeated "dry" fitting would eventually ruin the connection between pipes, so a pin or screw system to secure these parts would be ideal.
If possible, we would spend more time developing the sensor system to see if it could still be accomplished with one Arduino Nano.
Although the frame is still stable with the brace pipes in the current position, we would likely shift the connection point for the diagonal brace pipes higher on the side pipes. We originally planned to have a 15" brace pipe to switch out for the 30" brace pipe, but we could combine these two pieces for a longer pipe without requiring more material. This would likely make the frame more stable and durable.
Final Discussion
Final Discussion
If there was more time to continue the project, we would continue working with a redesigned prototype as we believe our concept is still valid and our problem is still justified based on our successful testing and positive reviews.
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