Project Development

 Hi everyone!! I’m back with my final blog and this time I will be blogging about the device that my team has been working on. 

In this blog, I will be covering the following: 

1. Briefly describe my team chemical device

2. Show how the team planned, allocated the tasks, and executed the project.

3. Document the entire design and build process of the chemical device and include videos, pictures, and screen captures of the processes.

4. Include “Hero shot” of every milestone of the processes, example the part A that was 3D printed, part B that was laser-cut, electronics components moved/worked according to the program. Hero-shot is taken with the person-in-charge holding/working/making the parts.

5. Include the name of the person who was in-charge of every part of the project.

6. Document my individual contribution to this project.

7. Provide the link to the page of the blog of my teammates.

8. Describe problems encountered and how the team solved them.

9. Include all the project design files as downloadable files.

10. Embed the final prototype design file, i.e., the final fusion360 design file showing the entire prototype.

11. Type my Learning reflection on the overall project development.

Sit back, relax, drink your favourite bubble tea and enjoy!!

Our team’s device: 

For our group, we decided to make a tea maker where users will be able to adjust the temperature of their tea and also how long the brewing process of their tea will be. 

This is so that customers will be able to enjoy their tea as quickly as they want and also make their own tea according to their own taste preferences. Different users enjoy different kinds of tea and different teas have different temperatures where they are enjoyed best. 

Our device of an LCD panel that will display the following: 

• Temperature

• Volume of liquid 

With our tea maker, customers will be able to enjoy their tea as quick as they want according to their taste preferences. 

Below is a sketch of our product:

However, while making the prototype we used the sketch below to guide us:

Team’s plan:

This are my team members and their roles:

Dylan → CFO

Kelvin  → COO

Darel  → CSO

Firzanah  → sadly has no role 😭😭

Kerri  → CEO

Here is our finalised BOM:

As you can see, we were really behind time, however we managed to pull through and did our prototype testing on the 17th 😁😁

Design and Build Process

Part 1. Design and Build of Load Cell Base and Plate (done by Dylan, Darel and Firzanah) 

Part 2. Programming of load cell, temperature sensor and LCD. (done by Dylan & Kelvin)

Part 3. Laser cutting acrylic parts  (done by Firzanah) 

Part 4. Design and build of casing (done by Dylan and Kelvin).

Part 5. Design and build of servo stand (Firzanah, Kerri)

Part 6. Programming the servo (Kelvin)

Part 7. Integration of all parts and electronics (done by Darel)

Link to blogs: 

Dylan

Kelvin

Firzanah

Darel 

Problems and solution

1st problem: 

We initially planned for our LCD panel to be installed inside a panel. 

Here is a sketch of our initial plan (Credits to Dylan)

However, the problem came in when the 3D print turned out haywire. This was because we did not apply a raft support at the bottom of our print in Cura. Additionally other than the bottom part being messed up, the top part of our print also got messed up. 

This is how bad our print got:

To solve this problem, we had to scrap the idea of having an LCD ‘box’. Instead, we decided that we would slot the LCD panel onto one side of our new model. 

We would slot it here (I’ll explain why its cardboard)

2nd problem: 

This problem actually links to the first one. Since the 3D print for the LCD got messed up, we had to improvise. Hence, thanks to Dylan he actually came up with the idea of inserting all the arduino into the casing. 

Since most of it was flat surfaces, we decided to laser cut each side to make our lives easier. 

We based the print of cardboard dimensions as a basis: 

Here's a '360' view of the above piece:

However, while laser cutting, we then realised that the dimensions got messed up.

As you can see, some parts are longer while some parts are shorter than the other.

As a result to solve this issue, we ended up improvising and decided to use cardboard instead as we were on a time constraint. 

3rd problem: 

The third problem would be our mechanism. Firzanah and I initially planned to have a servo that would be on a retort stand. The servo would have a string attached to it with a ball at the very end. When the servo is lowered, the ball would exert weight on the end of the cap of the teapot allowing it to be lifted. However, when I tested it out at home, the ball did not have any effect on the teapot lid. Since that did not work, we had to scrap that idea. 

To solve it, we (Firzanah, me and Dylan)  then thought of another way to integrate the servo into our product which was to also use a retort stand. However, this time, we decided to integrate the servo into the metal sieve of the tea bag.  We decided to make a retort stand that would assemble a crane which would help to lift the metal sieve of the tea bag out. (I’ll explain more) 

Individual part: 

The part that I was allocated to help with would be finding a mechanism for our product and also laser cutting the necessary components (that would be elaborated more in firzanah’s blog). 

For me, I had to come up with a way to integrate mechanisms into our product. The first idea that I (with Firzanah’s help)  came up with was to use a servo again with a retort stand. The servo would be attached to a ball that would exert weight on the pivot point of the handle enabling the lid of the teapot to be lifted. However, we realised that the ball that we 3D printed was not heavy enough even though it had 30% infill. 

Hence, we had to scrap that idea. We then decided that we should use the servo to lift the metal sieve out of the kettle. Why the metal sieve you may ask. Well, after users make their tea and wash the teapot, they will have to remove the metal sieve. However, the metal sieve will still be hot from the hot water used to make their tea. Hence, with the servo, we can use a string and insert it into the tiny holes of the sieve and tie them around the servo that will be programmed to turn. With that, the tea bag will be lifted without the users having to touch the hot metal sieve and risk scalding themselves.

This was a rough idea of what we had in mind:

Firstly to make this idea, I decided to test out the servo to find out the possible directions that the servo could turn. Here is the arrangement from tinkercad that I used:

This arrangement is different from the one used in the FINAL version (the code will be in the google drive)

Here’s a video of the result (me testing the servo and code) :

Next, I decided to make the components of the retort stand. To ensure that the metal sieve can be lifted, the stand has to be at an elevated height to give the servo some momentum to lift it up. Hence, I decided to make a platform that would raise the height of the retort stand. Additionally, the platform will also have a slot inside to allow the acrylic standee to fit hence, preventing from moving around. 

Here’s a picture of how it looks like:

Combining the standee with the kettle, this is how it looks like as a whole:

As you can see, the initial model is really flimsy and has absolutely no support unless I use my hand to hold it upright. This would mean that the servo won’t be fully supported as if it keeps moving around, it would be hard for it to perform its job which in this case is to lift the metal sieve. 

Hence, the idea was scrapped and I had to make a new retort stand from scratch. Since the cardboard part holding the servo was flimsy I decided to add acrylic (from the haywire laser printing) to the part to act as a support to prevent it from collapsing.

Additionally, I also changed the shape of the base to match it accordingly to the base of our prototype. Not only that, another piece of acrylic was added again to prevent the cardboard part from tipping over. 

And putting it all together, this is how it looks like as a whole:

Piecing everything together:

And now, we can combine everything together.

Here are the videos of our final results:

The first video covers the basic functions of tea maker which has the value of the temperature and volume of water displayed. The second video then shows the alarm that will trigger in the event that too much water is added (more than 0.5L).

Here is the link to all our resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/123vGcesjHLjBKAKqClPbd-ObtSuYdQlP?usp=sharing

FUSION360 of whole prototype:

Learning Reflection:

Throughout this whole process of prototyping, our biggest challenge would be time itself. We had many things to do just to piece our prototype together. The components that needed to be 3D printed would take at least 2 hours and not only that, the first print may not always work out. Additonally, the laser cutting process also took longer than we anticipated as there were limited slots available and again whether or not the cuts would turn out right would be another question.

However, through this practical, it definitely thought me how to adapt to changes (in a sense more like 'play be ear') by improvising. It taught me how to improvise such as using old scrap materials to make a completely new component.

This whole journey also definitely helped me recap on the skills that I have learned before such as FUSION360 and laser cutting. Through this whole prototyping process, it also taught me on how to make decisions wisely. On example would be that cause of the time constraints that we were facing, we actually decided to laser cut the flat surfaces of our prototype instead of 3D printing. This would save us some time as we won't have to wait 2 hours for one part which could just take 30s from a piece of acrylic.

Another learning point for me would actually be communication. It may seem basic but personally, I felt that my group and I could've done better. This was because throughout the whole journey, most of us kept private messaging each other without updating the rest in the group chat. This led to some of us playing a game of cat and mouse with each other meaning that person A may tell B to do something. Person B will then tell person C that person A said this but person C won't be aware. It happened multiple times in my group which could've been avoided.

Overall, this whole journey was indeed a crazy one as it mostly felt like a race against time but thankfully we pulled through and made something that we can all be proud of. It definitely also helped me think on my feet quickly and think of a new solution.

All the best guys :DD