Blog Posts

Week 4 Update

Having finally settled into the Spring semester, Team SimpliciTea is working hard to bring this project to fruition. The first of two Quality Review Board presentations, occurred last week and yielded valuable feedback from several project coaches. The overarching theme of feedback was project timeline. Coaches encouraged the team to take a step back to evaluate the project timeline and be overly proactive to ensure all deliverables are not only met, but on time. With that in mind, both the electrical and mechanical sub teams are challenging themselves to move up deadlines while maintaining an equal quality all work produced.

This week, the electrical team continued to develop their PCB design with the hopes of sending it to be manufactured soon. The mobile app is also in it’s infancy stages, with the hopes of graduating from wire frames next week. The mechanical team 3D printed several components in the IPPD lab this week and will conduct thorough testing next week to ultimately select a final design concept. Further support from their liaison engineers have allowed the team to incorporate CAD designs from existing Mr. Coffee products as well as physically using components from models that they have sent directly to the team.

Week 3

This week progress comes in the form of leaps and bounds. Our electrical team finished a breadboard prototype and a first draft of the special code to control functions. They have also mathematically modeled certain heating characteristics of the device.

They expect to send a PCB for production soon to shrink the size of the overall prototype. In addition to improving component choice and refining traces.

However, they did have a few issues this week as well. We currently suspect some ordered parts came defective. Further investigation will be done next week.

Breadboard Prototype

Mechanical team has finished designing a majority of their initial CAD designs. They have sent them to be 3D printed. In addition, we will be working with the Wertheim Laboratory for Engineering Excellence for special marital requirements. We expect a physical main housing assembly soon.

WEEK 2 UPDATE

This week, there was a lot of reflection and discussion about our design and how to move forward from our current standing. Putting together a consistent and fully operable prototype will be no easy task, and we have been brainstorming together as two sub teams to ensure congruence between the mechanical and electrical systems. The electrical sub team has been working diligently to put together an electrical prototype that will be responsible for fluid control, the user interface, and data acquisition while the mechanical team has been finalizing the CAD models and drawings for the several mechanical components and most importantly the main housing to efficiently store the electrical prototype. It has been quite the task figuring out the best way to place, fasten, or adhere the various electrical components within the housing. Once we come to a group consensus that the mechanical drawings are sufficient for manufacturing, we will begin 3D printing all components.

Getting this prototype theoretically perfect and preparing for assembly will likely go on for the next couple of weeks, and we are excited to continue making steady progress. In the meantime, enjoy this high quality render of a likely familiar component we’ve made in SolidWorks—the drip showerhead.

Week 1 Update

This Spring, team SimpliciTea is hitting the ground running as we start the second half of the IPPD program! The electrical sub-team is hard at work constructing the hardware of our Specialty Beverage Maker prototype. We have begun programming our Teensy microcontroller so that it is interface with the variety of sensors from Amazon, as well as other peripherals.

Amazon shopping list for electrical components
Teensy microcontroller for hardware prototype

Meanwhile, the mechanical sub-team is finalizing the CAD models to prepare them to be 3D printed. Additionally, Blender’s 3D animation tools are being employed to more fully visual our CAD models in the near future. The mechanical team is also researching certain key components to determine the best option for our Specialty Beverage Maker.

Week 16 Update

This week, our team reached the end of our first semester! All of the progress we’ve made throughout the semester culminated this Tuesday with our System Level Design Review (SLDR). After our trial run last week with our fellow IPPD-ers and our faculty coach, we made some tweaks and updates to our presentation, and were ready for our presentation Tuesday.

At the event itself, we were pleased to finally meet our liaisions from Newell Brands in person, and were glad to have the opportunity to network with them and a few other representatives from the company. After some good food and a great keynote speaker, we delivered our presentation. We received some valuable feedback, and were able to enjoy a successful end to our semeseter. Looking forward, we’re excited to hit the ground running as both our Mechanical and Electrical subteams look to begin rapidly developing and iterating upon a prototype. In the meantime, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from Team SimpliciTea!

Our team presenting our SLDR to representatives from Newell Brands

Week 15 Update

With just two weeks left in the semester, Simplicitea came back from Thanksgiving break with a lot of work to do, and little time to do it. In terms of the System Level Design Review (SLDR) report, the team updated majority of the documentation and added new information regarding their current prototype and the prototyping scheduling for the upcoming semester. The mechanical sub team will be working on creating various iterations of each sub assembly for rapid prototyping and testing purposes. Similarly, the electrical team will work to fine tune the project’s electrical schematic and create a prototype of the user interface. The two sub teams will collaborate to integrate their components and test the overall prototype. To gauge the public’s opinion on the team’s product, user testing will also be conducted, and is outlined as an important milestone. With this new sense of direction, the team is looking forward to starting next semester.

Along with the report, the SLDR presentation serves as a means of communicating the team’s progress this semester, and highlighting their expectations for the next. Experimental data, CAD drawings, technical performance measures, etc. will all be included to capture the current state of the project. In class, the team had the opportunity to give their SLDR presentation, and get valuable feedback from their peers and faculty in IPPD. Considering and implementing this feedback, will help improve the content of the presentation slides, as well as their delivery.

A content overview of the team’s SLDR presentation, which will take place next Tuesday, December 7th.

Week 13 Update

Prototype Inspection Day (PID) has been completed! We had the wonderful opportunity to highlight all our hard work over the last few weeks. The judges gave us invaluable feedback that we will present to our liaison engineers during our next meeting. The judges were also given a sample of our product using the same processes we developed. It was exciting to see many judges trying our product for the very first time.

During PID we also displayed both a physical 3D printed model of a component and a 3D rendering of the overall product. Our experimentation data was also presented with positive feedback. Our mechanical team focused heavily on having the model functionally integrated with one of Newell Brands current products for PID.

In the upcoming weeks our electrical team will focus on developing motion, controls, and senor data for our next iteration in our prototype. Concurrently we will be running more experimentation to answer questions and try suggestions the judges brought to our attention. We are also looking forward to examining CAD files from Newell Brands of different products they have on the market. Our goal is to learn industry practices and have reference marital in the upcoming weeks.

Our team also hosted Mrs. Basset, one of Newell Brands executives. She was given a tour around campus, UF COE, and the IPPD lab. We are looking forward to meeting the rest of the Newell Brands family in the upcoming semester, and potentially visiting onsite.

Week 12 Update

Prototype Inspection Day (PID) is one week away! The team has been hard at work developing a preliminary prototype capable of showcasing the progress we’ve made throughout the many weeks of research and experimentation. Our liaison engineers were able to provide us with more supplemental materials in the form of CAD drawings and electrical schematics of their products. These tools have been extremely helpful as we continue to explore concepts and work towards creating our own designs.

The mechanical sub team met to test the Oster steamer that Newell Brands had also sent to us. Manipulating the initial conditions like the cooking time, the tiers on the steamer, the water in the reservoir, etc. allowed us to determine the ideal conditions for brewing our specialty beverage. This data was later applied when we met again on Thursday to discuss design ideas. The team sent in a CAD model with the hope of printing it out for testing next week. Similarly the electrical team has been working hard to develop a systematic means of producing the perfect cup of our beverage each and every time, through the use of sensors. Multiple iterations were tested to create a calibration curve used to estimate the ideal properties of our beverage. Looking forward to Prototype Inspection Day, we are looking forward to getting solid feedback on the progress we’ve made thus far. Additionally, we are looking for feedback on the user’s experience, as ultimately we are looking to create a machine that requires the minimum amount of work on the user’s part.

Reverse engineering of the Mr. Iced Coffee revealed similar mechanisms used when compared to the Mr. Frappe maker

Week 11 Update

This week was a huge step in the right direction for furthering our prototype development. Our two sub teams, mechanical and electrical/computer science, met separately to reverse engineer two of the machines provided to us by our liaison engineers. Those being the Mr. Coffee Iced Coffee Maker and the Mr. Coffee Frape Maker. This significantly helped the team as a whole to understand functionality of these machines, how they’re manufactured, and how the individual components work together as a whole to accomplish a task. The idea behind separating into sub teams was to allow each member the opportunity to reverse engineer in a way that was tailored to their discipline. This method was very successful and was proven as such based on the valuable discussion on prototype planning and prototype design generation carried out during class this week.

Looking forward, the mechanical sub team plans to precisely measure and generate 3D CAD models and corresponding drawings for the various components isolated during reverse engineering. From these to-scale drawings, we intend to begin manufacturing as many components as possible through the methods available to us such as 3D printing, water jet and laser cutting, mill and lathe operations, and so on. The electrical and computer science sub team will be developing electrical schematic diagrams showing electrical connections within the system in great detail. They will also continue analysis on the electrical connections within the system to determine the most compact and efficient way to connect the various components. The team as a whole will be conducting prototype testing with the several parts we requested including a magnetic stirrer, heating plate, and several small motors.

Enjoy the picture below showing the reverse engineering process in action.

Mechanical sub team reverse engineering the Mr. Coffee Frape Maker

Week 10 Update

This week continued the excitement for our team.  After a successful PDR presentation last week, this week we finished acquiring all of the required signatures from our team, IPPD staff, and Newell Brands. With the support of IPPD and our liaisons, we’re excited to now shift away from the PDR to our upcoming Prototype Inspection Day (PID)! For the next couple weeks, we’ll be working full steam ahead to iron out any remaining design questions, and begin putting together a design for our first prototype.  

In preparation for this, each member of the team has continued their individual tests to help gather the data we’ll need to be sure in and to back up any choices we make. We also have set dates and times for both a mechanical and electrical breakdown of the products Newell Brands has sent us throughout the semester. By being able to reverse engineer existing products, our team will be gaining invaluable knowledge that will aid us in our own designs. As we move closer to the PID, our own excitement grows about being able to present a design to our peers! 

To cap off our week, our team experienced an unexpected fire alarm, and was able to spend some time outside with each other and our IPPD peers! 

Selfie taken while awaiting all-clear from Gainesville Fire Rescue