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Throughout this week, the Hardware team ran into multiple problems. One of the problems was that while the Assembly team was fixing the platform, some of the soldering came off again.This issue was due to inevitable human error in which the wires were accidentally moved, causing the solder to loosen and fall off. As a result, the Hardware team had to re-solder the wires again, needlessly wasting time from an avoidable issue. Another problem was that the online guide that our team was following did not give any insight into which of the stepper motor wires was connected to the power bank, and which wires were connected to the stepper motor drive. To solve this problem, our teams were forced to experiment through trial and error to decipher which wires and ports performed which functions. The Hardware team, however, bounced back from this problem and soldered on wires connecting the stepper motors, stepper motor drives, arduino, and power supply. In addition, the teams also disassembled and soldered on wires connecting to the 3D pen. As of now, the entire team is currently verifying that all the wiring works. On the other hand, however, the Assembly team made progress on the build plate foundation. In order to address the large and flimsy build plate issue, they cut the foundation into a smaller piece and screwed it back onto the base. Because the screws were in the middle of the foundation, the foundation turned out to be flat, which fixed last week’s problem of having a tilted plate. Finally, the Software team is currently working with the Hardware team to decide if the stepper motors are correctly communicating with the arduino as the code intends it to do.
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As each team begins to work towards the goal, this week has been a huge leap and bound towards an actual physical prototype that we can present to the stakeholders. First, as the assembly team has practically completed the 3D printer, all that remains is to connect the third-party components of the stepper motor drivers, the Arduino, and the power bank. This week, the hardware team has attached a horizontal Y-axis driver on a back of a CD case. Additionally, placing a flat platform onto the Y-axis driver allows the entire bottom of the printing station to move whenever its motor moves. Connecting another back of a CD case perpendicularly to the horizontal Y-axis allowed for an up and down Z-axis motor to be attached. Finally, hooking up a platform onto the Z-axis also allows for the forward and backward X-axis to function correctly. As a result, the floor will be moved right and left by the Y-axis motor, while the up and down Z-axis motor moves the X-axis, which will allow the pen to move forward and backward. This three-dimensional axis allows for the capacity of a spherical figure, thereby opening the possibilities of what we want to print simply to what we can code. The hardware team was monumental this week too, as they finished soldering all the wires to the ports. The software team remains on standby, as their role depends on the success of the hardware and assembly team. This week has allowed us to practically finish the hardware and assembly portions of this project, thereby allowing for the connection of the main components of the project to begin next week. Finally, the monumental event of connecting hardware and software will also occur next week, as the completion of the 3D printer approaches slowly. With the end of the project in sight, next week will be the final push towards the 3D printer. We will begin tests to calibrate the motors with our code, and if the unification of the two sides are strong, we will succeed.
Currently, each of the three teams have began picking up the paces after their previous week of research. The teams have started to build the platforms which will allow the pieces to work together, which is a crucial step in the uniformity of the project. For example, the assembly team passed their torch to the hardware team after buying and taking apart the final stepper motor driver. Additionally, the hardware team soldered the pieces together, connecting wires to the stepper motors using a solder. They tried to drill a hole through the stepper motors using a drill bit, but accidentally picked the wrong size, thus resorting to the soldering technique. Finally, the software team downloaded the IDE for the arduino and also installed GRBL, which translates programming language into an understandable language for the arduino to tell the stepper motor drivers what to do. As a result, this crucial week allowed us to create the strong basis in which we will rely on in the future. We researched our topics meticulously, allowing us to not make many mistakes this week, but ran into many mistakes we did not expect at all. When trying the 3D printing pen, the ran into some issues that will definitely create obstacles for us in the future. First, we ran into the issue of creating sharper creations, as our PLA and ABS filament was not able to finish the angles we wanted to. For example, when printing lines back and forth, the ends will be curved because of the natural tendency of the plastic to not fold easily. Second, calibrations of the actual 3D printing will be incredibly different from what we initially wanted to and program in the arduino. For example, if we create a cube, what we print upwards will curve and bend, not forming the straight lines that we initially planned for. In conclusion, this week truly allowed us to understand that we may have good points when we finish our work successfully and work well together, but also taught us that we must learn that problems will arise constantly from anywhere, and therefore we must need lots of downtime to plan ahead for this unforeseen, inevitable problems.
At this stage, the Lambda class is still in the process of gathering all the materials. The assembly team has gathered all three CD Roms and have taken them apart, scavenging them for their stepper motors to utilize at later stages in the process. They have meticulously disassembled the items, remembering not only why each thing is placed somewhere, but also understanding why they are there. The assembly team has also found the desktop power supply required to power the entire system and attempted to strip it to its bare minimum parts to create a more portable printer. The hardware team has acquired the Arduino, awaiting further instruction before attaching it to the 3D printer. They have also worked with the assembly team to understand the CD Roms so they can successfully complete their parts when it comes. The software team remains on standby, researching the implementation of the code and the process of transferring it into the Arduino. However, they have been constantly researching about G-Code, the code that the Arduino will take, which will be translated to the Arduino using a program named GRBL. The three stepper motor controllers and the 3D printing pen are still in the process of being delivered. As a class, our current status is a learning one, as we still must first familiarize ourselves with the entire makeup of the CD Roms, the software of the Arduino, and the hardware of the 3D printing pen. Additionally, we also require a strong understanding of the connectivity between all three items, requiring research of each individual wire and port of the aforementioned items. With much time this week being spent on meeting to create our presentation and practice our presentation skills, the rest of the time could only be spent on researching the project. However, as this week was spent mastering our presentation skills and researching the project, we hope that it will be a strong foundation to root ourselves in as we move towards building the actual 3D printer.
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