- What did you personally accomplish this week on the project
More testing is done on the braille cell, and I have done some detailed optimization on the CAD models. One persistent problem we were facing is that if we 3D print the body of the pin to be the exact same width as the pin holder, they will induce a lot of friction, but if we were to sand the pin down a bit so that it can slide smoothly, the pin will rotate slightly when the slider is pushing it up and down, resulting in a lot of jamming. A lot of experiments was conducted as attempts to mitigate this, and so far the solution with the best result is to include a slightly wider strip at the upper end of the pin to reduce rotation, while only adding a small amount of extra friction. We also experimented with using graphite as a solid lubricant, but oddly this does not improve the result observably. - Is your progress on schedule or behind?
Our progress is on schedule to be demoed at the final showcase, our project works as of now, but the actuation speed is way behind our design requirement. It will be tough to optimize it to meet our initial goal due to fabrication precision and limited testing time. - What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?
Beside optimizing the mechanical side of things, I also plan to “beautify” the project a bit more by 3D printing the product using black, white, and orange color palette, so that the audience can get a getter sense of how our actuator is working. I also plan to make some visual elements for our posters and final report (beside writing them) to better showcase our mechanism, like a exploded view of the assembly.
Braille E-Reader for the Blind – Cheap and Open Source