Project Development

Project Development Blog Entry

In this page, I will:

1.    Briefly describe my team chemical device

2.    Show how the team planned, allocated the tasks, and executed the project.

3.Document the entire design and build process of the chemical device and include videos, pictures, and screen captures of the processes.

4.    Include “Hero shot” of every milestone of the processes, example the part A that was 3D printed, part B that was laser-cut, electronics components moved/worked according to the program. Hero-shot is taken with the person-in-charge holding/working/making the parts.

5.    Include the name of the person who was in-charge of every part of the project.

6.    Document my individual contribution to this project.

7.    Provide the link to the page of the blog of my teammates.

8.    Describe problems encountered and how the team solved them.

9.    Include all the project design files as downloadable files.

10. Embed the final prototype design file, i.e., the final fusion360 design file showing the entire prototype.

11. Type my Learning reflection on the overall project development.

 

 

1.    Our team Chemical Device

·         In this section, I will briefly describe my team chemical device.

·         What it is. What problems will the chemical device solve?

·         Below is the hand sketch of the chemical device.

The objective of our chemical device is to ease our daily life with a cup of tea. With the help of our product, it will increase the productivity of our daily life. As the quality of the tea depends on the temperature and timing. It is a hassle task as it required a lot of control if the tea maker is not utilised.

Caffeine is a natural stimulant most found in tea, coffee, and cacao plants. It works by stimulating the brain and central nervous system, helping you stay alert and prevent the onset of tiredness. It also may boost our metabolism rate and promote fat burning.

Our device is a tea maker, it can brew the tea with the suitable temperature and volume of water. This will help us to obtain the best texture and fragrance of the tea. As different tea leaves required different temperature and volume of water.

By using this device, it will allow us to focus on our daily tasks and boost our mood. As such, it will enhance our body and mental health.  

Sketch of the chemical device:

 

 

2.    Team Planning, allocation, and execution

·         In this section, I will list down my team member's name and their respective roles (CEO, CFO, COO, CSO)

-          Joel (CFO)

-          Jun Kai (CSO)

-          Qian Yu (COO)

-          Jing Hui (CEO)

·         I will show the finalized BOM (BILL OF MATERIALS) table.

Bill of Materials (BOM) 

Project Title:		Tea   maker machine
Team members:		Joel   (CFO), Jun Kai (CSO) , Qian Yu (COO),  Jing Hui (CEO)
Created by:		Joel
Date created:		21 November 2022
BILL OF MATERIALS (BOM)
No	Description of item	Supplier   (include   hyperlink to the item  in website of seller)	quantity	quantity    unit	unit price ($)	Total Cost ($)	Available   at W319  Lab? (Y/N)
1	Loose   leaf green tea	Ahmad Loose Tea Caddy - Jasmine Green Tea | NTUC   FairPrice	100g	1	9.28	9.28	N
2	Sugar	SIS White Sugar - Fine Grain | NTUC FairPrice	1kg	1	1.85	1.85	N
3	Metal   infuser ball	https://shp.ee/2f9kx7e	1.7 in   x 2.3 in	1	3.79	3.79	N
4	Temperature   sensor - waterproof	Temperature Sensor - Waterproof (cytron.io)	-	1	2.86	2.86	Y
5	Heat   plate	Laboratory Equipment Factory Price 1400rpm 1000ml   Magnetic Stirrer Hotplate - China Stirrer and Magnetic Stirrer   (made-in-china.com)	-	1	26.61	26.61	Y
6	Arduino   uno kit	https://sg.cytron.io/p-maker-uno-edu-kit-arduino-compatible?r=1	-	1	19.61	19.61	Y
7	5V   Motor	5V 28BYJ-48 Stepper Motor + ULN2003 Driver Board   (cytron.io)	-	2	2.86	5.72	Y
8	PLA   filament	MP001654 - Multicomp Pro - 3D Printer Filament, 2.85mm   Dia, Black (element14.com)	1kg	1/2	30.19	15.10	Y
9	Acrylic   sheets	https://shopee.sg/Acrylic-Sheet-CLEAR-2-3mm-Only-i.262086529.6941186384	40 cm x   60 cm	1	13.80	13.80	Y
Grand   Total Cost:						$98.62

 

·         I will show the finalized Gantt chart (planned and actual) and the tasks allocation for each team member.

Gantt Chart 

Link to our

Gantt Chart: Topic6-2-gantt_chart-template.xlsx

Gantt   Chart for CPDD  Project:   Tea maker machine	Version   number: 1	Created   by: QY	Legend: PLANNED ACTUAL
Team   members: 1.      Jun Kai (JK) 2.      Jing Hui (JH) 3.      Joel Lu (JL) 4.      Qian Yu (QY)	Last   modified: 21/1/23	Checked   by: JH, JK, JL
Task	Done By:	20/1/23	27/1/23	3/2/23	10/2/23	17/2/23	24/2/23	3/3/23
A:   Discuss specification of prototype with group
B: Source   for suppliers for materials not available in the lab
C: Obtain   approval from lecturer of the purchases
D: Order   metal infuser ball from shopee
E:   Delivery of infuser ball
F: Buy   sugar from NTUC
G: Create   a 3D drawing on Fusion360 for the lid of the tea maker
H: 3D   print the lid of the tea maker
I: Laser   cut acrylic sheet for the kettle portion of the tea maker
J:   Programming using arduino
K:   Assemble the different components of the prototype together
L: Test   the arduino code and make necessary amendments
M:   Conduct experiments on prototype
N:   Consolidate data from experiment

 

 

3.    Design and Build Process

In this section, I will provide documentation of the design and build process.

Part 1. Design and Build of Part A (done by Joel). 

Link it to Joel blog:https://cp5070-2022-2b01-group1-joel.blogspot.com/

Part 4. Programming of motor and lcd (done by Jing Hui). 

Link it to Jing Hui blog:https://jjinghui21.wixsite.com/cp5070-2022-2b01-pjh

 

4.    Problems and solutions

In this section I will describe the problems encountered in the design and build process and how the team solved them.

Problems	Solutions
Fusion 360 CAD  For the first 3D printed product, the hole in which the tea infuser was supposed to fit through was too small. This was due to Jing Hui forgetting to add allowance for the hole and using the exact measurement from the shopee link which we obtained the dimensions of the tea infuser ball from.	We edited the fusion drawing, and added an allowance. Afterwards we 3D printed the product again.
3D printing  The time to print the entire lid was more than 24 hours.	The design of the lid was broken up into various parts and we ended up printing only the necessary potions of the lid such as the bottom of the lid and the cylinder where the metal infuser ball resides.
Shortage of manpower Although our team has 4 members, only 3 members contributed while the 4th member did not contribute at all. The 4th member did not read our messages in the group chat, did not turn up during our meetups, and did not even bother to ask what needs to be done and the progress of our group. Despite the efforts of the 3 of us in trying to encourage the 4th member, the 4th member did not change. Efforts to reach the 4th member proved unavailing.	The 3 of us should have been stricter. What we could have done was to confront the 4th member in person instead of just reminding the 4th member in the group chat.
Laser cutting Difficult to book the laser cutting machine. Most of the slots were taken when we wanted to book a slot.	We waited for next week and booked a slot. In the future should book in a week in advance and avoid procrastination
Laser cutting Since we have only operated the laser cutter once, most of us had already forgotten how to operate the machine. With only 30 minutes per booking session, we had almost no time to laser cut as we spent nearly the entire duration trying to figure out the steps to operate the laser cutter.	To remember the steps to operate the laser cutter, we used our previous blog on laser cutting as a guidance.
Laser cutting Our original idea was to have the cylindrical jug. However, the only way to obtain a cylindrical jug is to 3D print it.	Therefore, we changed our idea from a cylindrical jug to a cuboid jug.
Glueing of the acrylic sheets Water kept leaking out of the acrylic sheet we glued together.	Even after reapplying acrylic glue on the small hole, water was still leaking. We then improvised and used hot glue to fill up the small hole.
Arduino Programming Coding for two motors required more voltage. If Jing Hui were to add it , the motor spins very slowly. To add on, since she was using a stepper motor, its fastest speed was quite slow already.	Jing Hui did not programme the sugar motor and excluded it as she felt that the main objective was the tea.
Arduino Programming Temperature sensor was not working. Jing Hui tried using a basic code which excluded the motor to observe the serial monitor but it still kept showing -127 which meant that there was no communication.  She then tried to look at the electrical wiring portion and asked for help from other groups who had used the same type of temperature sensor.  She found out that she did not include a resistor which could be the source of her problem. However, after trying different connections for the wires and fixing the setup, no temperature reading was displayed. Therefore, after much testing and attempting to troubleshoot, she concluded that the temperature sensor used was faulty.	Jing Hui set (temperatureC == -127) so that during our demonstration, the motor would be activated since the read on the serial monitor is always -127. In her finalised arduino code, she changed it to (temperatureC == 80) so that when a working temperature sensor is used, it will require the water to be at exactly 80 degrees celsius to activate the motor. In the future, she should have started coding much much earlier so that she could have swapped the temperature sensor for a new one.
Prototype demonstration Our tea maker was supposed to be brewing for 3 minutes, however, the maximum time for the demonstration was 1 minute.	Jing Hui sped up the brewing time to 10 seconds so that it could fit in our video although no tea was brewed.
Poor time management Even though we had ample time to complete our prototyping, we did not plan our time wisely and struggled to complete it on time.	As this project was running concurrently with other projects, different modules and EST we were all busy and should have planned our time better by setting up a time where we can all meetup once per week.

5.    Project Design Files as downloadable files

In this section, I will provide all the design files (Fusion360 files, .dxf files, .stl files, arduino programs files) as downloadable files.

 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pdazsXXCQRGEWvanZ5AQAr_Nbzl8X5ac

(upload these files in onedrive or google drive of your personal account. Each person must have these files. Always check that the links to download the files are working.)

 

6.    Below is my Learning Reflection on the overall Project Development.

For this project, we did a lot of things such as designing a prototype using CAD Fusion360 and printing it out using a 3D printer and laser cutting the steering wheel. Moreover, we also used what we have learnt from Arduino Programming tutorials and applied it in this project. Basically, this project tests us on all the technical skills we have learnt from ICPD and CPDD. We would say it is not easy to build a tea maker in a semester because it was our first time building a smart device and we feel puzzled from time to time as things did not work out the way we wanted. 

 Nonetheless, what we could do to tackle the challenges is to go back to the lecture notes, practices, and blogs where we have documented everything we have gone through. For example, during laser cutting, we forgot what the setting is for cutting and engraving so we referred to our blog and managed to do it smoothly. As for the Arduino programming, what we learnt in the tutorial is not sufficient to meet our objective so what we did was to do a lot of research and find resources and videos that could potentially help us to make our tea maker LED works. We try the codes on our circuit and see if it works, if not we improvise the codes so that it meets the objective. We only managed to make our Arduino Programming work after the fourth time of trying it. What we learned from this experience is that it is important to have a growth mindset and perseverance because we would not have come this far without that mindset. When met with challenges, instead of giving up, we always try again and encourage one another that it can work. For the 3D printing, we also missed up some dimension for the internal parts, which cannot be attached together. Therefore, we had to reprint and redo the fusion 360 and drawings. It is a long journey for us to complete our device as it needs a lot of effort from us.