Complete Process of Creation Report

Introduction In this report, the student will show the use of technology, knowledge, systematic approach and creativity applied to create a final product that could represent itself and its engineering field. The final product should be a name plate that clearly shows the student’s name and reflect what it expects to be as an engineer. This project report presents a systematic approach of a designing process, applying the information learned in the course including tables, labels, sketches and pictures of the final product. 1. Defining a problem To define properly the problem:      Who is going to be benefited by this project? The student. What is this project expected to do? To show personality, career goals, and to be related to an engineering field of preference. When is needed? Before July 24. What is the maximum amount of money the student expects to use? 35-40$ Problem statement: Create a name plate that reflects the student’s goals and career. To use time efficiently is necessary to use a timeline, the tables 1.2 and 1.3 show the Gantt chart used in this project. The colors used have different meanings which are shown in table 1.1. Activity done on time Date planned to be used Activity done late Table 1.1, meaning of the colors used in table 1.2 and 1.3. Table 1.1, show the timeline of June, from 12 to 30. Table 1.3. Shows the timeline on July. There is an absence of work between July 2 and July 14. This due to my focus on the team project. 2. List of specifications On June 12, the project was started by creating alternative designs to define the list of requirements. In this way it would be easier to define the problem. It was noticed that on the designs there were common patterns; as movement and led lights. The brainstormed design is found on the Appendix section 2; the images are from the log book of this project. At first, the name tag was expected show the weather and the time, be an alarm and be charged by sun light. Then it followed by some designs based on 3D parts of hand prosthetics. All the design showed some relationship with what I wanted to be related in my professional career, however, I noticed that most of these designs lacked something that defined me as a person; colorful cute things, these are the small details that keep me alive. With that in mind the list of requirements was created. Requirements performance demands    wishes Show student´s full-name clearly. Has to be an electronic device. Helpful in some way. 3     Move. Shine. Have colorful designs around. Show the time. geometry  Less than 30cm materials   Recycled materials. Variety of materials.    energy  Either use batteries or connect to a power cord.  time  Before July 23, 2019.   Finish by July 19. cost  Less than 50$  Less than 20$ manufacture  Easy to manufacture.  Parts strongly attached to each other. standards   Not illegal. Meets requirements of the state and country where it   Use a hand design. Rectangular shape (horizontal or vertical). 3D printed parts. Water proof. Use a light source (ex. led lights) Do not use power sources like sunlight. was created. safety   Do not explode. Cover the cables used. transport  ergonomics  Easy to carry to school in a bag. One function besides showing the name. Easy to use.  Table 2.1 list of requirements.  Should not occupy too much space. 3. Brainstorming The brainstorming session started around June 12. However, on June 16the research started on internet, especially on YouTube. Since I wanted to create something with a technology I was not use to, I needed to learn as much as I could to understand how to use it. The brainstorming session was finished by July 21 and the picture 3.1 shows the final design. Picture 3.1. Sketch of a design. Using a lamp as a base, with a design that look similar to the garage of a house, with the name inside of the garage. At first, I thought that I could use an old toy that had led light, recycle it and use it in my project. The only problem was that I did not understand how I could use it. So I started looking for other options; on YouTube there was a video showing how to make a wooden night light that could show my name (Royal Doug, 2017), I felt so inspired by it that I had to watch what other designs could be made with it. As I kept looking, I found more designs made out of wood, designs that followed the idea of mechanical engineers. I wanted to make them and almost changed my field of study but decided I still wanted to make a lamp. The prices for the led light varied; A flexible led light of 16.4ft was around 14-20$ and a bag of 100 individual Led lights pieces (10 each color) was around 10$. By June 18, I found an old lamp with the cord cut (see pictures 3.2 a,d 3.3), my mom had this lamp since a long time and she never used it. We did not know if it worked, it was the moment to find out. Picture 3.2. The frontal view of the lamp. It shown it was broken in the top and had no cord to connect it with a power source. Picture 3.3. Shows the inside of the frontal view, where the light bulb should be. Specifications of the light bulb where found inside. On June 19 I keep creating concepts to adapt the lamp to something that could show my name and my type of engineering. I also wanted to add a small prosthetic arm made out of 3d printed as shown in picture 3.1. 4. Evaluating a design By June 22 I was not sure that the lights would work on the lamp. So before buying new light and cables, I decided that I should evaluate the most distinguished concepts and decide for only one.  Concept #1 It was a digital name tag that showed my name and my engineering field, the weather and could work as an alarm. I expected it to stand still. Its light would not be as bright as I would like it to be. Not only that, but creating an alarm is complicated since I do not have the knowledge nor the materials, which requires a lot of time and money. The concept is shown in Picture 4.1. Picture 4.1. Clock design of a name tag, it also shows the weather.  Concept #2 The name was not my main concern when creating this design. I wanted to create something with the 3D printer, however I had little experience in 3D printers. I did not expect it so be still even tough is a horizontal design, since is like a skeleton arm. The lights I wanted to use for this one would be colorful and shaped like mushrooms; they would not provide too much light but it would look aesthetically pleasing. The light could be charged with a portable battery, which I could find at cheap price. However, creating a hand prosthetic would take time, unless I used an already existing design to base my project. Picture 4.2. Prosthetic hand, with led light sticking out.  Concept #3 I was not sure with the design, but it could stand without help. The light would be helpful at night when studying and if I use the back of the lamp, I can plug my sticky notes in there and can use my space efficiently in that way. To make it more relatable to electronic I wanted to add some extra details like making 3D robot arms, but that would take too much time. It was completely white which it makes it easier for me to doodle or make it colorful. The design is shown in picture 4.3. Picture 4.3. A lamp that has my name. CRITERIA Stands Light Useful manufacture color Price OV Wt Concept#1 Concept# 2 1.5 10 8 1.5 1 3 2 5 2 3 2 2 .5 1 6 1.5 3 5 10 37.5 37 Concept#3 10 8 5 9 6 5 74.5 Table 4.1 the decision matrix, used to decide for one concept. Using the decision matrix, I reached to the conclusion that the concept #3 should be the best to try. 5. Creating and testing By July 1, I was behind my schedule of creating and testing a prototype, but I finally decided on buying the light bulb for the lamp. I decided that it could be better to create the hand with another material and not 3d printed. The light used for the lamp was plc. 8w t5 12in cool white. The light bulb was around 8$ and I thought that I would save money using old USB cables that I had around the house. By July 6, I finally opened the lamp and found different cables of colors (Picture 5.1). I did not know what the colors of the cables meant. I had to do research and found a website (Paul Pogue, 2015) that explained the colors of the cables and what they indicated. With this information there was more confidence in the project. However, to try the prototype I first had to practice with cables, how to connect them and be sure I keep the safety first. Picture 5.1. The exposed interior of the lamp. By July 15, I started experimenting with the lamp and used my old USB chargers to connect the old lamp with the power source (picture 5.2), I followed the advice of a Youtuber to understand how to connect the cables (Shreyansh Shashwat, 2017) from this video I understood how an USB cable could be used to give energy to a device other than a cellphone. Picture 5.2. Shows one of the cables used. I tried two times and the lamp did not worked, I was so confused since the adapter said it could have an input of 100-240V, which should be enough for my device. From this I reached three hypotheses:    Either the light bulb does not work, The device is broken or… The USB charger does not supply enough energy. The most important part of the lamp was hidden inside a plastic material so I decide that if I opened it, I could understand why my test did not work. So, I broke it and got the circuit exposed. Which could have destroyed my experiment if I made a mistake. I realized that this was a mistake since I could not understand what the functions of any of the elements were. But none of them seemed burned so I could discard the idea that the device couldn’t work because the circuit is broken. To clarify my doubts, I asked for help and got recommended to try plugging the device in a power outlet using an extension. At first it did nothing, but after I fixed the bulb in the lamp it shined. In this way I checked that the USB cable was the problem. Picture 5.3, shows how the lamp and light bulb worked. Meaning that the USB charger was not enough. An USB cable would never be enough to light my lamp because is not strong enough to carry the voltage necessary for the lamp, I needed to use a cord like that of a computer/laptop. I could not find anything like that around my house, which could be used for my project. For that moment my only task was to look for a new cord and a port to create the final design. Which I finally found on Sunday July 21, for a price of approximately 8$. Final design In July 22, the lamp was connected to the new cord and tested; it was a success, now I just needed to put my name and add custom details to make the device beautiful. However, the most difficult part would be to decide if I had to paint the device or just add small details around. I didn’t want to mess the lamp so I decided to create a model to apply an idea I had in mind for the project (pictures shown in the appendix section 5.15.3). Once the model was one, I could proceed to create the final product. However, once I started doing the final design, I noticed that the idea that was expected to be use to cover the hole of the machine would not work. To overcome this, paper Mache was used to cover the top of the product. Picture 5.1 show the final design. And table 5.1 show the total amount of money spent on this project. Picture 5.1. the front of the final design Object Cost light bulb 8$ Vinyl electric tape 3$ Cord 8$ Total 19$ Table 6. Shows the total budget used in this project. Appendix Section 2: Appendix2.1, shows three of the ideas that were brainstormed first. 1) represents a clock. 2) a prosthetic had with led lights. 3) a hand. Appendix 1.2. more details on the brainstormed idea 3), with light or movements. Appendix 5.1. the model used to create the style of the final product. There were no white led lights. Appendix 5.2. the led light did not work correctly at first, in this picture the name can be seen clearly. Appendix 5.3. In the process the letters were changed to experiment and compare which style was better in visibility. Conclusion From this project, the student was able to apply the information learned thought the whole course of introduction of engineering ENGR 1201. Using a systematic approach, the student was able to realize the project and simplify its process. The final product was a lamp modified to show the student´s name and extra details.