Assembly Line Challenge

For Mine and Andoni's assembly line challenge project, we were to print the number "2" on the dice. Beause the numbers 2 and 4 are on opposite sides of the cube, we combined our project with the group that was to print the number "4" on the cube (Gustavo and Nick Robles). From there we worked together to make a machine that could print the numbers 2 and 4 on opposite sides of the cube, with a very high success rate that was able to print the numbers 2 and 4 on all six of the die. 

Here is a picture of our skethed design of our project:

How we solved the problem: We solved the problem using the Fischertechnik parts and the motors that are included. We used photoresistors and motors to the measure the light and with the values command the motors to turn and thus a red piece pushed the dice on both sides.


Here are the team challenges we got:
"Flash of Inspiration" - Brainstorm a solution for your section of the assembly line with a sketch. 
"If you Build It..." - Implement a solution for your section of the assembly line. 
"Proof is in the Pudding" - Implement a solution for your section of the assembly line that successfully operates with adjacent sections. 
"Round and Round We Go" - Iterate on your initial implementation. Explain the challenge you discovered off the first effort and what you did to overcome it. 
"Round and Round We Go... Again" - Iterate again on your implementation. Explain the next challenge you discovered with your design and what you did to solve it. 
"Leave no Trace" - Return your fischertechnik to their appropriate storage locations/clean your work space. 

My own individual achievements that I received are:
"Share It" - Provide feedback (Sustain, Change, Question, Idea) for another team. Who did you provide feedback to and what was it? We provided feedback with our surrounding groups (Nikki and Morgan, and Jon Henry and Nick Wiley), because we had to coordinate how our projects would be compatible with one another.
"Keep the Customer in Mind" - Your blog post is formated in a readable, professional manner. Writing is short and concise. Spacing is used to break up thoughts/concepts. Lists and/or bullet points are used as appropriate. No "monolithic" paragraphs. 
"Nice One!" - Identify a student from outside of your team that was most helpful to your efforts. Be specific about how they were helpful. Marco helped us with aligning the drop to transfer the dice to the following team.
"Helping Hand" - List a student that you helped outside of your team. How were you helpful to them? I helped Jon Henry get his part of the assembly line set up when he needed a lot of help.
"And the Winners Are..." - Recognize class participation by selecting one person other than yourself for each of our five activity awards (Initiative, Sportsmanship, Collaboration, Humor, ...what's the fifth one we have up on the board?!) Improvisation is the fifth one we have on our board. Initiative - Gustavo. Sportsmanship - Jon Henry. Collaboration - Nikki. Humor - Robles.


worked with Andoni on the blog

Machine Control Capstone Project

Achievements:

Marble Sorting (some achievments scored multiple times):Sort one marble (x1)
Sort two marbles (x1)
Sort three marbles (x1)
Sort four marbles (x1)
Sort four marbles (x2)
Sort five marbles (x1)
Sort five marbles (x2)
Sort five marbles (x3)
Systems (not including motor or piston used to charge your pressure vessel):Use one motor

Total: 9 out of 12 We were unable to use a valve because we were one short, so we used all motors.

Pictures:
1. Close up of the four motors that push the glass marbles.
2. Final project with Ryan in the background.
3. Unfinished project.
4. Program we used in RoboPro for our marble sorter.

Robo Pro Variables

Today we learned how to create programs on the ROBO Pro software that involve branches and variables. The variable tool is very helpful.

My program above turns on a light for 2 seconds.  This program keeps repeating until it happens 5 times total. The variable tool helped to get rid of unnecessary lines that made the flowchart messy.

Eng Program Investigation

http://ceng.calpoly.edu/

1)College/University of interest:
 - Cal Poly

2)Why does this institution appeal to you?:
 - I really like the campus, and location of the school. I also know that the school has a very good engineering department.

3)Which engineering program is most interesting to you and why?:
 - Aerospace engineering most interest me because since i was litte I jave always enjoyed learning about flying and airplanes. My family is full of engineers, my dad is a nuclear engineer, my aunt is a material engineer, and my uncle is a civil engineer.

4)Which undergraduate engineering elective is most interesting? Describe the course and its appeal to you:
 - The engineering elective of my choice would be again, aerospace engineering, like  I said before. Iwould also really enjoy taking other engineering courses, such as material and mechanical engineering.

Glider Challenge: Design Phase

Done with andoni

Glider Challenge: Design Phase

Our final design is the white and blue hanglider second from the far left.

2. 1) What's the challenge? The challenge is to build an efficient glider given the materials of some balsa wood, glue, and tissue paper.
2) Brainstorm solutions:
-What are the rules of brainstorming? (oxymoron) I'd say there are no rules to brainstorming; the only thing that would even come close to being a rule would be "nothing rediculous", but that would defeat the purpose of brainstorming, as brainstorming is listing anything and everything that comes to mind when confronting a problem.-List your ideas Hanglider, stealth bomber design, airplane design-Sketch at least two of them
3) Specify:
-Criteria Has to be able to fly, has to have wings, should be designed to achieve the most hangtime and distance, should be somewhat accurate
-Constraints (be specific about materials available) Only given a few materials, I don't know the exact amount of materials, but I could guess that we got about 3-4 square feet of tissue paper, and maybe a total of 1.5 meters of balsa wood, weight, must be hand thrown4) Develop Solutions:
-Sketch (with labels)

Bonus) Prototype with PaperWe made a prototype with the yellow plastic arms from the robo kits (picture of the prototype is included in my previous glider blog post).

3. As far as results go, our glider did pretty well despite our terrible and fatal test runs. We finished 3rd in distance and 1st in hangtime. If we did this again, I think we would defnitely change the wing size, as the stregnth of the balsa wood was not enough to support the massive wing size, and other groups with more of an airplane approach with smaller, more rigid wings seemed to work better than ours

woked with Andoni

Glider Blog

Glider Challenge

Before you're ready to "compete" with your glider, you probably want to try your design out and see how it goes. Use this format for collecting notes.

What did you learn from your test flight?We learned that our wings were too big and that the balsa wood frame was not as sturdy as we thought, and not nearly sturdy enough to support the size of the wings.

What are your goals for your glider and how will you adjust your design in order to help it better meet them? We will try to fix the glider, but I'm not sure that it will work seeing as almost the whole frame is broken in several places. Definitely going to be a hard fix if it's even possible.Here is an extensive gallery of pictures that were taken during the construction of our project:

:

We just tested our gliders today (April 8). Turns out, we actually did pretty well, we got first place in hangtime and third place in distance, which of course is much higher than I had ever imagined for our design, given how much it failed when we tested it last time.

worked with andoni

Egg Drop Challenge - Iteration #1"


2) At the top of your post list the following:
"Total # of Achievements Earned: 22


3) Post an image of your Egg Drop solution.


4) Justify (list and explain) your Achievemtns. Use images as appropriate. For organization's sake, use the categories provided in the Egg Drop Achievement List.
Idea Generation Achievements

Brainstorming
-Create a sketch of one possible solution. Include labels.
-Create a sketch of another possible solution. Include labels.
-Create a sketch of a third possible solution. Include labels.
-use a descision matrix



Descion Matrix



sketches

Material Prep
-Generate a list of materials required for build day.
-Document a plan to ensure materials are brought in on block day.



list of materials

 Material Size:
(your egg is not included in the material size)
(air is ubiquitous and not included in material size. "Rare" commodities like helium are.)

-Your materials fit inside a printer paper box

-Your materials fit inside a shoe box

Material Weight:
(your egg is not included in material weight)
-Your materials weigh less than 500 grams.
-Your materials weigh less than 300 grams.
-Your materials weigh less than 200 grams.
-Your materials weigh less than 150 grams.
-Your materials weigh less than 100 grams.
We had a very light desugn that helped us gain 5 easy points

Drop Achievements

Drop Accuracy:
-You hit the butcher paper!
-You hit inside the third ring!

Egg Resilience:
-Your egg broke but the yolk remained intact.
-Your egg cracked but the yolk stayed inside and intact.
-Your egg cracked but was still together.
-Your egg didn't break in any way! (awarded three times)
-Your egg didn't break in any way! (awarded three times)
-Your egg didn't break in any way! (awarded three times)
Other Achievements
-Help set up the Bullseye.
-Design an Achievement Mr. Olson approves for next year's Egg Drop Challenge.


5) What designs from your class did well? Based on the achievements you earned, how would you redesign your solution to score better? Be specific (sketches with labeling work well for this). Joe's design did very well, the eggo was logged inside a noodle, acting as a capsul. He also used a paraschute in order to slow the design down enough. If I had a chance to redesign mine, I think i would have tried to bring the weight down to under 50 lbs.

1) What is the TED organization about?
TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading
2) What is the purpose of their website and how does the functionality of their site support that?
To spread ideas and bring people together from the technological, engineering and design backgrounds
3) As Engineers and Problem Solvers, which topic areas (the choices from the "Show talks related to:" section on the sidebar) are of most interest to us? Justify your answer.
I really like the ones on enigineering. I chose the Engineerinmg disaster in Haiti video.
4) Based on your previous answer, what are 3 talks (videos) on the site that appear like they would be of most interest to you as an Engineer/Problem Solver? Justify your choices.

5) How could you get involved in the field/technology/issue you chose to hear about? What experience/skills/training/education would you need to learn to get involved with this field?
I could compare building codes in Japan and Chile to the Haitian laws.

3.1.1

Activity 3.1.1 Inputs and Outputs

1. Examine the wire diagram on the mini switch and describe how the diagram relates to the concepts of normally open and normally closed.

2. If computers only understand digital signals, then how is a computer able to interpret the analog signals coming from the interface?

3. Why does resistance decrease as the NTC Resistor becomes warmer?

Mini Switch:

-when plugged into 1 and 3 and not pressing button:

unchecked

at zero

not present

-when in 1 and 3 and pressed

checked

at one

present

-when plugged into 1 and 2 everything is flip-flopped

Potentiometer:

-range: 38-4945

NTC Resistor:

-1668

-while warm was at 1318

Motor:

-one way to change the direction of spin is by switching the wire ports

Electromagnet:

When reed switch is touched the box becomes checked

Photo transistor:

-closer light gets the number goes down

--This information is Jackson's--

I was sitting next to Jackson and observed what he was doing, but I did not participate.
copied from Andoni

3.1.4

Today, Wednesday, we used ROBO PRo once again. Today we started working with switches and it actually became a little harder. We got it under control and were able to do it. Here is our picture of a light with a potentiometer. When you turn the potentiometer, the light will turn on. Pretty cool stuff.

My team consisted of Ryan, Nick, and I. Although we used the software on my computer, we all helped to built the module and take pictures. I think all of us made an even contribution.

Questions

1. Describe why it is important to include branches in programs

-----It is important to include branches in your program because if you want to be able to turn things on and off, you need to have switches and branches in your program.

2. Describe an everyday application of a normally open switch that has not been given as an example.

 ----An everyday application of an open switch is a railroad switch. When you turn the switch it changes to a different track.

3. Describe an everyday application of a normally closed switch that has not been given as an example.

------A normally closed switch would be a faucet. When you open the faucet the water will flow.

Worked with Colin

MKS Blog

Distance- Meter
Time- Seconds
Mass- kg
area- meters squared
velocity-meters per second
density- kg/meters cubed
gravity- meters/second squared
force- Newton: kgXm/second squared
energy-  Joule: (kgXm/second squared) X meter
power- watts :  (kgXm^2) / (seconds^3)

Opt in post

If "Elegance" in design is doing more with less, how will the New Balance 890 accomplish this?

Which steps of the PLTW 12 step design process did the New Balance Designers use?

Sub Programs Blog

 Above is a picture of my sub  program, the same pragram we designed yesterday. Below is a picture of my main program. As you can see my sub program (Bisquick) is nested withen my main program

Flowcharting

1. How is flowcharting similar to using a map to plan a route for a trip?
- Flowcharting is very similair to using a road map because each arrow represents a road. Each box represents a turn or curve in the road.
2. Describe a process that you perform every day. Develop a flowchart that illustrates the process.
-I did a flow chart of my morning

Content is King

Q- What is a field/hobby/something you have a passion for (surfing, sailing, robotics, painting, etc.)?

A- One hobby that i enjoy is playing sports, specifacly baseball.
Q- What person or organization in that field has used blogging to promote their brand?
A- Matthew Leach is a person who works with the St. Louis Cardinals baseball website. He answers questions from fans about the team.
Q- What is a field you might see yourself blogging about?
A- I think I would really enjoy doing what Matthew Leach does because i enjoy baseball, and the Cardinals is my favorite team.
Heres a link to his website
http://yourenotagolfer.mlblogs.com/

Survival At Sea Game

In this activity we broke into groups and were given the assignment to rank items in order of importance while lost at sea.
My Picks
Top Picks:
1. A 25 L container of water
- I chose this because it is impossible to survive without water after 2 days and it is likely that you will be lost at sea for over 2 days.
2. A case of Army Rations
- After water food is probably the most important thing to stay strong and to keep have energy.
Last Picks:
14. One bottle of 160 percent proof Rum
- I didnt think rum would come into play while at sea, I thought it was not as important as most of the other things
15. 2 Boxes of Chocolate bars
- chocolate bars could provide sugar, but the effectiveness of two cases would not be enough to make a difference.
Teams Picks
My team agreed on the top pick, water, because it is essential for survival in any condition
We disagreed on the 15ft of Nylon rope, i ranked it 10 and my team ranked it 5. I thought 15ft wasn't really enough to do much with, i wasn't really sure what i would use it for.
Our group worked well together and came up with uses for each item. We were very productive with the amount of time given.
Experts Picks
The top picks betwen our group and the Coastguard were off a little. Items like the shaving mirror, ranked first by the coast gaurd, were ranked by us late. I also disagreed signifigantly with the coastguards ranking of the fishing kit. Their argument was that it was risky, but I think if you are in such a situation as desperate as lost at sea, I think risks are necessary in surving these situations.

Tennis ball game

On Wedensday we broke into two teams and elected a team represtative to get directions from Mr. Olson. The challenge was to get the tennis ball around the circle before the other team. Each round constraints were added.  In this activity each team was required to use effective cummunication and team skills to succeed in the activity. The two teams in our class were fairly even. Overall, this activity reinforced teamwork.