Final Project Week 5

Day 24 (4/26/16)

In this final week of project development, Sara and I had several goals. The first being to get the program running completely as desired with the right settings for Jim. Our second goal was to consolidate the circuits and dramatically decrease the size of our device. Our third goal was to make our device look nice and neat. Since we essentially finished the development and design of our code and circuit last week, we had the luxury of focusing on our product's visual appeal.

Step 1: Condensing the electronics

The first step we took in refining our product was to condense and secure the circuit. To do this we used a small protoboard that we found in the engineering lab. We transferred the circuit from our original breadboard to the protoboard and then soldered all of the circuit elements.

Step 2: Packaging the electronics

Our second step was figuring out how to package all of the elements in to one product (with the smallest possible design). We figured out that the arduino and protoboard were small enough to fit in to an Altoids box if we put the protoboard on top of the arduino (separated by electrical tape to avoid bad points of contact). We cut the wires to the optimal length to make the connections between the protoboard and the arduino and figured out what holes we would need to drill in the Altoids box. We needed two holes for the leds, a hole for the servo wires, a hole for the battery connection and a hole for the computer connection. Ideally, once we have the protoboard and arduino connected and put in the box with the wires strung through the specific slots we will not have open the box again. After this point all of the adjustments we would just be related to the code itself that could be changed easily. This not only helps us to decrease the size of the product, but also the simplicity for the user.

Step 3: Packaging the whole device

Our third step was to figure out how to include all of the external pieces of our device. These include the servo motor, the bell (we ended up deciding to use a bike bell), the battery and battery pack, and the power switch. Luckily, since our design uses a closed Altoids box there is a lot of real estate up for grabs on the outer surfaces of the box. 

We ended up hot glueing most of the elements to surface and tried to maximize space and optimize the design. We set up the servo motor in the right spot to ring the bell, but so that it did not hide the leds from the user. Both the servo motor and the bell were hot glued to the top of the box on the other side from the leds. As for the battery and battery pack, there was just enough room on one of the sides of the box. We hot glued the battery pack to the side and made sure that it would not stick out past the wheelchair width or get in the way of Jim's daily functions. The switch just hangs closely to the box, but we can make adjustments to the attachment of the switch as Jim needs it. For the final pice of the packaging puzzle, we added a velcro strap to the bottom of the Altoids box so that the device can be strapped around the arm of a wheelchair. 

Step 4: The aesthetics

Our final step was making the product look nice and neat. Since all of the parts were glued to the box, we didn't have to worry about that. However, we did have to deal with the external wires. We ended up just using black electrical tape to secure and cover the wires on the side of the Altoids box. In the end, we decided to paint the whole box black to give it a consistent color and make it look neater.

All in all, our product ended up looking and working pretty well. Our adjustments made a huge difference to the look and function of the device that we think Jim, or any user, will appreciate. Here is a video of our refined product in action:

Next week we will be presenting our product to the class, to our clients, and other interested people. We created a poster that introduces our product and describes our project goals. The poster also details how to use the product. These posters will be up for viewing in the science center.