Personal Accomplishments
1. More Gantry Fine-Tuning and Troubleshooting (13hr): During this week, we noticed a phenomenon where the pieces began to move more inconsistently. This led to a lot of troubleshooting where I tried to change the height of the top board, alter the angle of the board, and think critically about why this might be occurring. In the end, I determined that the sharp edges of the 3D-printed pieces would hit the wooden board during movement, which added enough friction to prevent movement altogether. I fixed this by going through and sanding down all of the edges of the pieces, as well as sanding the surface of the board. At this point, officially, all piece types are moving as expected again.
2. Testing Movement and Specific Circuit Components (4hr): After fine-tuning the details above, I tested movements in different directions with the chess pieces. I also wanted to go through the process of verifying the functionality of our circuitry. Therefore, I went through and looked at the roller switches and electromagnet. One thing that I noticed (which we will have to note during demo) is that the electromagnet does not work as effectively if it becomes overheated. To avoid this, we will need to ensure the electromagnet does not stay on for long periods of time. This should be straightforward, as the magnet should only be on for the short period of time during a move.
3. Mandatory Lab Sessions (4hr): During our class sessions this week, we had the opportunity to share our final presentations. It was my turn to present, so I explained our project’s progress so far and the steps we still have to complete. It was great to see everyone else’s project as well, and I took some time to fill out peer reviews for all of the other presentations.
4. Prepare for Final Presentation (2hr): In order to give a good presentation, I spent some time beforehand to prepare what I wanted to say. This time seemed to help a lot, as I felt that our presentation went very smoothly with no major issues.
Progress
The small movement issues were solved this week, but that, unfortunately, prevented me from making much forward progress as I was instead focused on getting back to the functional spot we were before. The purely mechanical nature of the gantry can cause these issues to occur, so I want to iron out as many as possible before our demo this Thursday. I will need to put in some time early this week to finish my portion and get the project to match my initial vision, but I have no doubt we can get it done fully.
Next Week Tasks & Goals
- Give a good demo and show the class what we’ve been up to!
- Finish all final project documentation requirements