Aside from finishing up detailed schedule and attending proposal presentations this week, I mainly did research on the Arduino software and circuit design for controlling solenoid and stepper motor. The video that I was mainly studying are the following two:
I am currently on schedule for researching to design and feasibility of the go piece feeding system. However, testing for maglev feasibility has been delayed due to delivery issues and we plan to move the maglev testing to next week.
For next week, I plan to mainly perform tests and gather data required for the design of the Go piece delivery system:
- Test for the forces required to push to separate magnets directly sticking together horizontally.
- Test for the forces required to push to separate mock Go pieces (magnets surrounded by non magnetic materials) sticking together horizontally.
- Create a physical prototype barrier as the Go piece (magnet) holder to test for feasibility of pushing to separate and displace the Go pieces.
- After finding out the average forces required to separate pieces sticking together, test for the feasibility of using a solenoid or stepper motor to separate the magnets.
- Figure out the go piece holder’s structure and motor placement after deciding the kind of motor used for piece feeding.