Week 4

Today is the second day of week 4. We just had thanksgiving break and our MS9 is due next week Monday. We just started building the car. We cut out the base with 1/4" acrylic plate, and cut out the ball clamp with 1/8" hardboard by using the laser cutter. We cut out two ball clamp so we can attach them together to make a 1/4" thickness. We cut out the aluminum rod for motor shafts and wheel shafts by using band-saw. We also used the band-saw to cut out the aluminum L-block for the bushing mounts. We used the mill to drill holes.

Our next step for the car module, we need to finish the mechanism for our double gear motor-box and cut out the clamp support. We need to sandpaper the shafts so it could rotate smoothly inside the bushings.

We have not started building the flipper module yet, but we hope to finish it by this week. We need to water-jet the base and the flipper support. We need to mill the L-blocks, attach the rack to the arm. We also need to assemble the planetary motorbox.

We may make modifications as we manufacture the two modules.





Our MCM moved last week! And we got a good grade on MS8.

The Real MCM:

The Solidwork Drawing:

One important note: we had to remove the bushing that we were using as linear bearings. No matter how much we tried to sandpaper the rods or even use lubricant the arm fixture would not slide up the rails. We now have 1/4'' rods sitting in 3/8'' holes. This is not ideal because it allows for a lot of rotation and could lead to jamming. It worked last week however and at this point there's really nothing we can do.

Updated Schedule

We ran behing of Schedule. We were supposed to have our Car made by now, but all we have completed so far is the ramp. Here is our schedule for the rest of the term.

Nik & Ahsun- Tuesday-Friday: Start and finish building the Flipper Module. This involves:

-waterjet for base and triangles
-cut 4 pieces of aluminum 90 stock and drill holes
-cut rack, drill holes, and counterbore to hide screws.
-cut 2x1 aluminum stock into two pieces and drill holes. Use bandsaw to make a gap for the balls in the second piece.
-assemble planetary motor with 80:1 ratio
-cut 1/4'' aluminum rod for motor shaft
-press fit pinion to shaft
-attach shaft to motor using flexible coupling
-assemble everything

Ben & Syaz- Tuesday-Friday: Start and finish building the Car Module.
-cut the base with 1/4" acrylic plate
-cut out two of the ball clamp with 1/8" hardboard
-cut out the aluminum rod for motor shafts and wheel shafts
-cut out the aluminum L-block for the bushing mounts
-figure out the mechanism for our double gear motor-box, assemble the motorbox to gear ratio 114.7:1
-cut out clamp support with 1/4" aluminum plate
-sandpaper shafts
-pressfit the rods with wheels
-assemble everything
-test the car with power supply
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of next week: make modifications and hope for the best!

Week 3

Today we will show our finalized MCM to our GSI for MS8 assignment. It was a hazard week, since we had to modify our drawings and re-measure parts. However, we did manage to finalize our MCM.

For our winch system, we did manage to find a way to attach to the ramp. We were initially going to put our winch system on our base plate at the front, but it was too large. We used the laser cutter to cut out the plywood to make a base for the winch system. The base for the winch system was put at the top of the two left bars, and it was attached by using two L-blocks at each side. We tightened it by using bolts and nuts. For the shaft that connects the motor, we made a groove in the middle and tied a knot of kevlar thread and attached it to the pressfit bars.

For the dropping mechanism for the arm, we used the kevlar thread and the electrical tape to attach the arm and the pressfit. What we were aiming for was that when the motor pulls the arm, the tape and the thread will drop and the arm will drop accordingly. However, that mechanism did not work, so we need to find another mechanism to drop the arm before the slotbot is due.

After finalizing the design and mechanism, we assembled all the parts by using bolts, washers, and nuts.
Our MCM does function, but the arm pulled by the motor is really slow, however we need the gear ratio 400:1. Therefore, we will probably stick with the gear ratio we have right now.

Also for the MS8, we had to finalize our design of our other modules, the flipper and the car. For the car, we decided to have a M-shaped clamp of plywood that could be attached at the front. This will help collect the balls easier and push them. The car will have four wheels, run by double-gear motor, and L-blocks to make the wheel shafts secure.

For the flipper, we designed it so that the arm drops vertically and opens the switch. It will be run by the planetary gear motor and the rack and pinion system. The arm is going to be in aluminum so it has enough weight and force to open the switch.

We may need to make few modifications in the future before we machine our parts, and we need to trade with the GSI in order to get components we need in extra.

Here are some pictures.

The dropping arm.

The winch system
The assembly that the arm fits through and is pulled up by the ramp.

A picture of the entire module will be posted next week.

Week 2

We're half way through week two and things are going well. Tomorrow we have our MS7 where we show our GSI three fully completed parts. We will show him him the pressfitbar, the armsupport1, and the base plate. The parts were well made with the waterjet, bandsaw, and mill and used wood and aluminum

We are on track to complete our MCM by Wednesday of next week, however we have a lot of work to do. In addition to machining the rest of our parts, we still have to finalize our design for the winch system and the initial dropping mechanism for the arm. Originally we were going to put the winch in the base plate, but with the 400:1 gear ratio it is too large and doesn't fit. We're going to try to put in on top of our ramp instead.

Here are some pictures of parts we completed since our last post:

Base Plate (laser cut) :

Arm Support (water jet):

Bearing Sheet (water jet):

AlumL (bandsaw, drillpress):

Left and Right (bandsaw, milled):

Before next Wednesday we have to finish the following parts:

arm (bandsaw, mill)
rod (sandpaper with lathe)
pressfit x4 (bandsaw, mill)
All parts for winch system

Week 1

We have finalized our drawings for the most critical module, and we have been working in the workshop to manufacture it this week. We have not finished all the components of the module, but we have started building few components: the four legs that attaches to the base, four L-blocks that secures the legs in place, and two press-fit bars that fits into the two rods and supports the bearing sheet.

We used the bandsaw to cut out the 1" x 1" aluminum square tube stock for press-fit bars, aluminum 1/2" square stock for the legs, and aluminum 90 degree angle stock for the L-blocks. We used the mill for drilling  holes in the legs, L-blocks, and the press-fit bars for accurate measurement. For other holes in the L-blocks and the legs, we used the drill press because it did not have to be that accurate compared to the other hole.

Next week, we are planning to use the waterjet to cut out the aluminum sheet for our base sheet of the ramp, the two arm supports, and the two bearing supports.

(This was a mid-week update)