This week we’ve been 3D printing more tracks and mounting mechanisms. The Les Paul guitar is looking good now that we’ve sanded and spray-painted it. We’ve also begun coding for some of the LEDs that will be going on the machine. The CAD modeling for our rocket and Iteration light bulb mounting is finished. To help speed up 3D printing, we’ve printed these parts at UF. Our Polycrylic has arrived and is in the lab, so we can coat the frame soon and start mounting our MOIs. In the meantime, we’ve tested a mockup of Serendipity to ensure its functionality. The Cade team has been very helpful as we’ve been collaborating with them this week on color choice and getting some labels and a picture of C. J. Walker printed on PVC.

Things are good and busy at Team FunRaiser as we continue on our MOIs, now with all 5 sequences in progress! We’re working with the Cade to figure out printing CJ Walker; the Curiosity guitar is assembled and ready for finishing; Imagination has a completed rocket track and a functioning plasma ball; Serendipity is already 3D printed, and Iteration is next, with its circuitry already fully functioning. Meanwhile, progress continues across team members on the wood frame, the ball track, and the electronics.

We’ve had to do a bit of troubleshooting with the Cade 3D printers, and we also had to adjust our printing schedule to make sure we don’t fall behind. We’ve got plenty of manufacturing left, so we’re making sure to keep moving along!

We were able to get a few prototypes of our mounting mechanism printed so we could look at stability. Now, we’re hoping to start mounting into the actual frame, which has been sanded and is soon to be coated in Polycrylic. It’s thrilling to see different parts of our machine slowly come together!

This week the team was hard at work as production for 4/5 sequences are underway. We also presented our progress plan and our course of action that would follow afterwards. We received some good feedback! Ethan and Hannah continued to work on their sequences while Aaron and Jacob begin on their individual sequences. Caitlin is now focusing on integrating the track model.

We are excited to start 3D printing, we are fortunate enough to be able to print at the Cade. They allowed us to use 3 of the MakerBot printers and the team took this week to familiarize ourselves with dealing with hobby printers. Over the course of the month of February we will be printing the track for the device!

This week, the FunRaiser team worked on the construction of the frame we will be mounting our design on. This had to be completed before the elements of the design so that the elements can be mounted as we go. We built this frame in the lab and are planning on sanding and finishing it in the coming weeks.

While Jacob and Aaron have been working on the frame, Ethan and Hannah have started work on their specific mothers of invention. Hannah designed and sent the Les Paul guitar to be cut and ordered the other components. Ethan ordered all of the lightbulbs and electrical components for our iteration design. Ethan has also been testing sensors and has switched from using pressure sensors to inductive proximity sensors.

Besides this, Caitlin has continued to work on the CAD model for our entire design to get all of our components working together.

This week, we’ve begun our CAD modeling of the various Mothers of Invention in our display. Soon we’ll combine them into a full CAD model of our design. We’ve been working on an improved track/sensor design that we hope will improve the machine’s ability to detect a ball rolling down its track, as well as some mounting designs to display the sequence in our machine’s frame. We’ve also started ordering materials and tools so we can get back to the lab and start building this awesome machine next week.

Happy New Year!

Since coming back for the semester, the team has been hard at work! We’ve been setting up meetings, organizing our manufacturing plan, and finalizing details on our design. This week, we used Blender to model and position elements within the Interactive Donation Machine.

Get ready for our Solidworks models next week! Lots of exciting things ahead.