This week, I have gotten test data for our dispenser. Using a new deck, I have dispensed 10 decks in a row and written down how many times the dispenser was not able to dispense a card. The data suggested 24 errors / 1090 cards, which is about a 2% error rate. However, while using the dispenser to test out the hardware interface later, I noticed the error rate went back up by a lot. We believe this is due to the cards themselves gaining friction between each other due to hand oil and card wear and tear over time. I have tried making the card hole smaller to fit just one card, but that seemed to not dispense due to the cards not separating, further supporting our theory. We have come out with a new way to more quickly prototype different card holes by separating the front portion of the dispenser from the rest of the body, which will let us try out many different iterations over the next couple of weeks.
I am still on schedule, since the rest of my schedule is dedicated to testing and helping others to integrate the full system. Next week, I want to keep testing the dispenser with the new prototyping mechanism we have built. Also, we would like to test out adding IR sensors in order to provide automatic feedback on whether the dispenser failed or succeeded in dispensing the card.