Bill:
I hooked up the load cell to the power supply and the multimeter to test whether it worked properly or not. I plan on further testing it by hooking it up to the load cell amplifier and using the multimeter to check the output and then connecting it to our Arduino to see if it can read from the amplifier.
Next week, I also would like to test out the larger but more inaccurate peristaltic pump. We would like to use this pump for our cleaning water supply as it will allow us to quickly dispense the water we need into the funnel. Also, next week, I would like to work on creating the funnel with the grate inside of it.
David:
This week I mainly set up the hardware and software parts related to the Raspberry Pi. I soldered the parts of the hats and also researched on drivers and installation related to the pumps and the valves. Moreover, I have started setting up the environment on the Pi.
Next week, we should be able to put the pumps and the Pi together and control them using the Pi. Thus, I plan to mainly do the coding related to setting this up and test using the Pi, and then we should be able to decide the design and put together onto the report.
Connor:
This week I tested out one of the peristaltic pumps. We pumped water from a container to a beaker. To pump approximately 70 mL of water, it took roughly 52 seconds to do so. We were able to do this without using a Raspberry Pi. To simplify things, we simply hooked up the peristaltic pump to a power supply in the lab (at 12V DC) and manually turned the power supply on and off.
Next week, I would like to have us come up with the basic scaffolding system for the pumps and bottles. This needs to be done as we need to submit our design review by next Sunday. In addition to that, we can begin building out our scaffolding design next week. I plan on going to the local Home Depot to pick up some items for scaffolding and tubing. In addition to this, I would like to test out the gravity-fed solenoid valve that we should be getting sometime this week.
Overall:
I believe that although we might be slightly behind schedule on some items, we are on track with others. Bill has begun testing out the load cell, and we have tested out some of the pumps that we will need for our design. While we were supposed to finish the design the scaffolding system this week, we feel very confident we can complete and begin implementing it by the end of this week.
The scaffolding design could change, but any deviations should be cheap and cause little to no delay in the schedule. We can most likely go to a local home improvement store to purchase any materials (PVC pipes, screws, etc.) with ease. While the scaffolding design is something we have to take some time to thoroughly think through, we have a bit more margin of error than with the electrical components due to price and accessibility. Also, by working on the design of the scaffolding this week, we can make online purchases if we are somehow not able to find such items at a local store. We also didn’t have any major changes happen to the design during the past week.
