Since the last status report I have made a new prototype for us that is much smaller than the previous version. Previously both of the dev boards were just hot glued to an attachment that stuck out from the bottom of the racket, both boards had header pins and wires connecting those. There was also no battery. In the new design each component (battery, IMU, microcontroller) has its own “compartment”. This took a lot of iteration to get all of the things to fit together well, and then even after I thought I had finished and I went to solder the boards together with wires and then it messed up the fit of the components in the 3d printed parts so I had to iterate further, The current design also has wires that are longer than necessary, I did this as an intermediate step so that if/when I need to iterate I don’t need to fully get new wires I can just trim the current ones and re solder them. I have already learned some ways I can make the design better and I should have a final version by the design presentation on Monday.
I also spent a ton of time this week working on our project as a startup, we have submitted to two pitch competitions and will be presenting on Wednesday at one of them. I have done stuff like making a final BOM and calculating all the parts in that down to the material and printing cost of the user guide that would be placed in the box the product comes in. I also looked at unit economics, did lots of market research, logo design work, and tons of work on the script for the competition.
I am behind on the PCB design which is bad, I wish I had that more under way and ready for fab. I am going to try and make that happen by the design presentation, but I have a lot on my plate preparing for the competition on Wednesday, so I am not sure I will be able to finish it. I do want it done by the time the final poster board demo happens though.
I have really been enjoying the project this week, we have met up every day for at least a few hours to work which has been great.
In the next week my main focus will be preparing for the competition, and working on final hardware design.
old design:
new design:
there is a video that makes the new design much clearer but I can’t upload a video here. I showed it in person to Qing during our mtg on Monday
