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Miles’ Status Report for 10/18

In the week of 10/4-10/11, we were mostly working on the Design Report as a team. Personally, I mostly worked on the system implementation section, as well as some of the smaller ending sections like the scheduling and summary. This took the majority of the week, as we tried to be as detailed and thorough as possible in our report.

Our main goal last week was to complete all the deliverables needed for the report, which we did complete. Our goal for this upcoming week will be to get all of our parts ordered now that we have our BOM and start our 3d print so we can begin assembling and testing our project as soon as possible.

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Team Status Report for 10/4

As a team earlier this week, we mainly worked on the design presentation. Since there was a lot of material to cover about Passing Partner, going through the slides together helped John prepare what to say within the time limit. After we went through our design change last week by having the vertical tilt function static at 45º, our biggest risk that could jeopardize our success is still likely the wheel launching mechanism. We have been mitigating this risk as much as we can by thoroughly outlining calculations and selecting parts that overshoot our quantitative specifications to have room for flexibility.

We are currently on schedule, so there are no updates to report. Besides the change made last week to implement a 45º vertical angle instead, we have not had any other significant changes to the existing design of the system. We have shifted our focus entirely to the design report for next week, which is our main deliverable.

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Miles’ Status Report for 10/4

At the start of this week the team spent a lot of time collaborating on the design presentation. Towards the middle of this week we also began working on the design report. I have mostly been working on the architecture and system implementation sections.

In addition to the report, I have been continuing to research the other motors, as well as prepping the cad model to be printed. I was hoping to get it printed this week, but there were some tweaks I wanted to make to the model, and I’d rather only print it once than have to reprint it multiple times and waste money, especially when we are still working out our final bill of materials. Our main deliverable for next week will be the design report, which will also have out completed bill of materials and our finalized cad model.

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Miles’ Status Report for 9/27

This past week, I have mostly focused on researching materials and working on our CAD model of the launcher. I have been spending a lot of time researching the DC motors we’re going to use to launch, since that is the crux of our project. I’ve been trying to find a balance between getting something powerful enough, but also at a reasonable price and footprint. We also have been working together on the design presentation.

I believe we are still on schedule, and I finished the CAD model like I had planned last week. For next week, I’d like to at least get the motors ordered and have a few pieces 3d printed.

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Team Status Report for 9/27

As a team we have spent a lot of this week collaborating on the Design Review Presentation and searching for essential components (Oak-D Camera, motor board, Raspberry Pi) for our launcher. Our biggest risk we think this week after more design is the tilt adjustment. We realized that adjusting the vertical angles ties to our stretch goals of launching different curves/launches. To mitigate this, the vertical tilting is now a stretch goal and the launcher will stay at a constant 45 degree angle for now. To adjust distance we will instead adjust the power, RPM, and torque of the motor. Because 45º is the optimal angle, at max motor power, it will get us our max distance, and if we want to shoot closer we can decrease the parameters of the motors. This overall is a minimal design change, and if anything it simplifies our design. If we in the future want to add the tilt back in, it will not be a major change: just implementing a rack and pinion mechanism.

We are still on track with our schedule, so no changes have occurred.

Below is a still WIP but more complete CAD diagram of what our launcher is now like. Some of the parts are to scale placeholders for our actual parts(motors, rollers, etc.)

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Team Status Report for 9/20

Our biggest risk for the project going forward will be the main ball launch mechanism. We are confident in the design itself, but we are just not sure of exactly how far we will be able to launch the tennis ball. We are mitigating this risk by trying to overestimate the launch force, energy, power, and exit speed needed from the spinning wheels so that we will have some wiggle room, while also having backup plans in case it fails (spring load mechanism for guaranteed energy).

No changes in design nor schedule have been made thus far. Our main goal as a team for next week is to complete the design presentation for 9/28 and get a more complete Bill of Materials.

Very Rough Draft of CAD Modeling(WIP) of the launcher base (x-axis rotation):

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Miles’ Status Report for 9/20

At the start of this week we mainly focused on the presentation. While Andrew was the one presenting, we all worked on the slides and plan for the presentation. We all contributed to different parts of the slides while also working together and discussing them. The main thing I contributed to the presentation was the Gannt Chart and Task List/Schedule I created. Later on this week, I researched more parts we could potentially use for our project.
Tentative Links:
2.5 in. CIM Motor
https://www.omc-stepperonline.com/3pcs-e-series-nema-17-bipolar-1-8deg-17ncm-24-07oz-in-1a-42x42x23mm-4-wires-3-17he08-1004s
design inspiration for base:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5213801

I have also started a CAD model in fusion for the housing of the launcher(more in team report)

I believe we are on schedule for now. The main deliverable for next week I want to complete is at least a rough draft of the CAD model, and a more complete list of materials.