This week I mainly was responsible for picking up different project components and making sure they work as they are supposed to. Below is a summary table of the components that arrived and have been tested. For most mechanical components, we just tested whether or not they are fragile, rotate as they are supposed to, etc. The laser is shown to have enough intensity and the camera capture quality is great. The laser is also class 3A, but as suggested by Professor Tamal, I still contacted CMU to make sure that we don’t need additional training or safety requirements or the laser (which we do not).
| Ordered | Arrived | Tested | Item |
| Yes | Yes | Nema 23 Stepper Motor | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | 15 Inch Wooden Circle by Woodpeckers |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Swivel Turntable Lazy Susan Heavy Duty Aluminium Alloy Rotating Bearing Turntable Round Dining Table Smooth Swivel Plate for Kaleidoscopes Tabletop Serving Trade Show Displays(10 inch) |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Source One LLC 1/8 th Inch Thick 12 x 12 Inches Acrylic Plexiglass Sheet, Clear |
| Shaft’s Gear | |||
| Yes | Yes | STEPPERONLINE CNC Stepper Motor Driver 1.0-4.2A 20-50VDC 1/128 Micro-step Resolutions for Nema 17 and 23 Stepper Motor | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Lazy Dog Warehouse Neoprene Sponge Foam Rubber Sheet Rolls 15in x 60in (1/8in Thick) |
| Yes | Yes | ~ | Adafruit Line Laser Diode (1057) |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Webcamera usb 8MP 5-50mm Varifocal Lens USB Camera Sony IMX179 Sensor,Webcam Support 3264X2448@15fps,UVC Compliant Webcamera Support Most OS,Focus Adjustable USB with Cameras,High Speed USB2.0 Webcams |
| Yes | Nvidia Jetson Nano Developer Kit | ||
| Yes | Yes | Yes | 256GB EVO Select Memory Card and Sabrent SuperSpeed 2-Slot USB 3.0 Flash Memory Card Reader |
The main part that I tried to test were the motor and the driver board, but I didn’t want to potentially burn them, so I decided to wait until our Jetson arrives or when we borrow an Arduino with a potential mini breadboard and potentiometer (to make sure that the current going to the driver and motor are as specified by their specs).
On top of this, I did more research on how to connect the motor and driver together and read more articles which use Jetson to control a stepper motor (although different models and drivers). I also talked to TechSparks about the use of their space. I would have to 3D print a gear on the shaft of the motor and all we need to do is create an STL file and estimate how many grams of 3D-printed material we would need. For the laser cutting part, I am not trained. However, I reached out to a friend outside of this class who is trained for laser-cutting and he agreed to help cut out our acrylic sheet to create our internal gear.
I am currently on schedule. Luckily the parts arrived earlier than we expected even though our team ordered them a few days later than what we planned to.
For next week, I would mostly be outside of the US for spring break. I would probably not be working on this project until I come back. When I come back, I hope to test out the motor and driver and start assembling the platform together so that Jeremy and Alex can see how the rotational mechanism affects the data capturing and see what adjustments we would have to make.