Category: Andrew’s Status Reports

I  worked on the final presentation slides and reviewed the slides. This week was heavily focused on integration and final optimization of both the hardware and software. We as a group did a lot of testing for the entire project. I spent a a lot of my time improving the gantry system physically. I cut and reattached the belts for both the wheels and the gantry system. This was to make sure they were properly tensions after noticing slipping from the stepper motors. I also contributed to wire organization and stability improvements which included the pen holder movement.

Alongside the hardware work, I helped refine the software pipeline with Ethan, specifically help improve the column-splitting calculations that convert the uploaded PDF into draw-able sections within the gantry’s range. I spent significant time debugging and attempting to optimize the G-code output so the marker wouldn’t unnecessarily lift between small strokes, although Ethan ultimately discovered the final solution.

I am currently working on a progress bar for the website that updates users of the amount of time remaining for the gantry to finish drawing their pdf content. This will improve user transparency and overall experience. Next week I will be responsible for editing our final demo video. I will also be working on the final report and demo preperations.

Early in the week, I helped plan the step by steps for the overall final approach to how we were going to attach the gantry to the cart. We decided to use wood. I helped integrate the motors to drive the wheels. This included measuring and cutting the belts to the specific length and securing them to the motors and the wheel axle. I also worked on mounting the vertical board to the cart, making sure the board was stable and properly aligned to support the gantry. I then worked on securing the gantry to the board using metal zip ties. I also further secured the gantry itself by attaching a new 3D printed piece to replace an older part.

As I worked on this project, I found myself needing to learn both laser cutting and 3D printing which are tools and techniques I had little prior experience with. I would say I became much more comfortable with laser cutting, especially when adjusting the parts that didn’t fit as expected. I learned how to properly tension belts when using stepper motors to drive the belt. On the integration side, I learned a good amount about how PDFs work. I never knew that PDF are essentially a collection of objects which includes text, images, commands, resources, etc. I only discovered this when getting advice for getting more consistent PDF to SVG conversions). Most of this learning came from online resources such as youtube and troubleshooting. I also learned from Ethan who had prior experience with both laser cutting and 3D printing.

 

I started this week by preparing for the interim demo. With the team, I finished setting up the gantry and organized my talking points for my portion of the presentation. I think the demo went pretty well. It showed our gantry’s drawing capabilities.

Later in the week, the components we ordered arrived. I worked with Ethan to successfully extend the gantry using the 1200 mm rods. Now the vertical length of the white board can be covered. This completed the design change we had discussed. We are now shifting toward prioritizing horizontal movement while still supporting vertical operation. After installing the longer rods, I helped test the prefabricated cart. I helped brainstorm some ways to attach the gantry and came to the conclusion that attaching the gantry to a metal sheet with bolts will ensure that it is secure. One concern we had was whether our motors would be strong enough to rotate the gantry vertically, but testing it relieved that concern.

Next week, I plan to help mount the gantry onto the cart as well as attaching the new stepper motors to the wheel axis. Once the structure is complete, we will begin testing the wheel mobility.

This week, I made significant progress on building the gantry system. I faced some challenges which included a lot of troubleshooting for the build as a lot of the pieces did not fit properly similar to last week. I had to do more laser cutting as well as modifying new 3D printed parts that I got from Ethan. Despite the considerable amount of time the assembly took, we now have a fully operational gantry which is a major milestone for our project.

On the software side, I worked with Ethan to integrate the website and the motion control. Tomorrow, I will do some tests to see how the Flash interface connects to the file conversion to make sure that we are ready for the interim demo.

Next week, I will focus on finalizing the plan for building our final gantry as well as ordering parts with the group. I will also work with Ethan to finalize which software component we will be using for the SVG conversion after comparing our results as I used SpirePDF and he used another component.

After seeing how our gantry in operation, I am more confident in our final build. I believe we are all caught up to our initial schedule.

This week, I continued to work on both the gantry assembly as well as the Flash website. We worked on assembly early in the week before realizing we needed to make some adjustments to the 3D printed parts. We needed to order filament which arrived on Friday. 3D printing wrapped up today, so tomorrow, I will be going in to hopefully assemble the gantry structure tomorrow.

On the software side, I made more progress by adding a logging feature that records each upload and its corresponding PDF-to-G-code conversion result. This will help us track performance and debug any issues once the hardware integration begins.

Our goal this week is to finish assembling the gantry and begin testing full integration with the web upload to the motor control. Since we actually worked on building and seeing how it will come together, I am optimistic that the gantry will be running as we intend to for the demo.

I shifted my focus from software side to work on building the gantry in preparation for the upcoming demo. Ethan and I worked mainly on laser cutting. We ran into some issues on that end since the laser cutters we were using turned out to be faulty. That obstacle aside, we finished laser cutting all the pieces we need to build the gantry. We plan on finishing the build early this coming week. Once that is done, we can start testing how uploaded files translate into actual motion on the gantry.

I made some progress on the flash website. I added the website feedback so users can see the upload and conversion status. The goal next week would be starting to connecting everything from upload to sending commands.

I am a little less behind schedule than last week. I am confident that once we the build gantry running with the G-code, we will be in a good spot.

This week I continued to work with SpirePDF. I was having trouble with the parsing and the conversion of the uploaded PDFs. After testing it to see how well it could handle different diagrams and texts, some files resulted in giving inconsistent SVG outputs. I have been exploring other possible workarounds and alternative tools that we can maybe use in the future. The challenge this coming week would be to get the pipeline fully working from the web upload to the G-code generation.

The goal next week would be starting to connecting everything from upload to sending commands. I’ll also work on improving the website feedback so users can see upload and conversion status in real time. Once that’s working, we can start doing full integration tests with the hardware.

I’m a little behind schedule due to some parser troubleshooting, but with the design work settled, I should be able to catch up next week.

This week, I implemented the file upload functionality for our Flask web interface, which is currently hosted locally on the Raspberry Pi. The site can now accept PDF uploads for processing. I also began experimenting with SpirePDF for parsing and converting PDFs into vector formats that will later feed into our toolpath generation pipeline.

By the end of next week, I plan to integrate the PDF parsing results with the SVG-to-G-code conversion flow. I’ll also work on improving the front-end feedback (status messages after upload) and maybe even look up some deployment options such as Gunicorn for non-local hosting.

I realized SpirePDF has some limitations with complex image PDFs, so I will need to do additional testing. This might set me a little behind schedule.

At the beginning of the week, I focused on the project website. I worked on setting it up and started developing the upload functionality so that files can be submitted through the site. I got the upload feature to work so it should be ready to connect to the Raspberry Pi once testing for image to vectors begins.

I will be presenting for the team on Monday, so later in the week, I shifted towards preparing for our upcoming presentation. I worked on refining the slides and practicing my talking points. I also reviewed the overall presentation to make sure it flows smoothly.

I am currently on schedule with my tasks. Next week, I plan to test the upload feature with the Raspberry Pi and continue expanding the website with project content. I also plan to incorporate feedback from the presentation into our design work. When the motors arrive, I plan on also helping out with the integration.

At the beginning of the week, I worked on the presentation slides. Specifically, I created the slides for the use case, overall solution, and testing plan. I also helped review the final edits of the overall presentation to ensure consistency across the team’s sections.

Later in the week, I shifted my focus to the software side. I began looking into how we can implement the website for PDF upload, which will serve as the interface for sending files to the system. I researched potential frameworks like Flask and Node.js and mapped out the basic workflow for how an uploaded file would be stored and then processed by the controller.

Next week, I plan to start building an upload page so the team can test the process. If time allows, I will set up the backend so it’s ready to connect with the Raspberry Pi once hardware testing begins.