Week 9

Summary:

• Painted Latex Mask
• Blue Eyes, Hypnotize
• Jaw 3.0
• Machine Sketch
• Audio!
• Movement!
• Everything's falling together!

Howdy!

This past week has been a crazy one. Between creating the final presentation, finalizing Project Mario, or creating the poster for the Freshman Design Competition, each team member has had their hands full with their respective tasks.

First thing first, I'm the realest. Second thing second, Kate painted the latex mask with blue and yellow acrylic paint! It looks amazing. Some of the paint has been rubbed away from all the testing. but that's an easy fix.

With the head finalized, the eyelid mechanism was placed into the mask as well as the new jaw. The jaw had to be printed for a third time because it was still too big. New photoresistors and leds were added to the jaw and implemented.

Pete also finished up the final machine sketches for the head!

The circuit for the audio was wired up correctly and does output ample sound. This sound is, however, very muddled and clouded. Professor Terranova suggested using a resistor in between the ground and input pins of the speaker. This works a little better but still is not as loud as desired. We will continue working on this issue.

Here are a couple sneak peeks for the motion of Mario.

Some final touches will be added this weekend for the in-class presentation on Tuesday as well as the competition on Thursday. Stay tuned for a final update next week!

Week 8

Summary:

• Latex Mask is Here!
• Platform Dimensions
• Photoresistor Implementation
• Reset Button
• K'NEX Head Piece Reconfigured
• Eye Mechanisms 

Welcome back! 

We're getting down to the last few weeks of this project and the sense of urgency is off the charts. 

All Hail Katherine Comisac, First of Her Name, Mother of Dragon!

Fortunately, the latex mask finally was finished and revealed to the group and the rest of the class!

There are a few pockets where the liquid latex did not dry completely but Kate will work on smoothing it out and detailing the mask this weekend. She also successfully cut holes in the mask for the eyelid mechanism to go, which we also figured out this past week.

We also decided the dimensions of the board all of the electrical components and dragon head would go; Sean cut us a board of 46x46cm. Meanwhile, we faced a predicament with the ultrasonic sensor in the mouth. Because it is such a narrow distance, it will be difficult to achieve accurate readings when someone places their hand inside the mouth. To solve this, we decided to monitor the voltage readings of the photoresistor using a white led. When someone places a hand in the jaw, the led-photoresistor path is darkened, which we will use to trigger the servo motor to close the jaw on the hand.

Sticking with the electrical talk, we will also implement a reset button that will return all mechanisms to its starting position. We tested it today with a simple circuit.

There is also a slight concern that Kate's latex mask will be too small for the original K'NEX structure Pete built. So, Pete checked out a bag of pieces and started building a new structure. 

To create the eyelid mechanism, we sliced a ping pong ball into a hemisphere to make the eye and used a quarter of another to create the eyelid covering. Attached is a small video of the way the mechanism works. 

Week 7

Summary:

• Final 3D jaw came
• Plaster Fail :(
• Silicon mold created
• Initial Layer of Latex applied
• Initial Servo Testing 
• Sensors and Servos Connected
• Draft Final Report written

Hey, Hey, Hey, We're back!

Gary's new and improved jaw that I mentioned last week finished printing at the very end of the lab period and it appears to be the perfect size. We will be testing it with the servo motors in this coming week. The size of the holes near the back of the jaw are the perfect size to fit a K'NEX piece in to hold the two pieces together.

Sadly, I have some bad news. The original plaster mold I talked about last week did not work as well as we hoped it would. Gary, Kate, and I tried making a cut and breaking the plaster mold into two pieces, but instead we ended up with a little bit more than two as you can probably tell by the accompanying picture. 

However, not to despair! We managed to salvage the clay model from this debacle and Kate revisited the drawing board to create a silicon mold this time. This mold was created and removed from the clay model perfectly. Today, we also applied the initial layer of liquid latex. 

Pete also began some initial testing with the servo motors to determine the maximum amount of force that the servo can apply. I, sadly, was not able to take any pictures of this but I promise I'll have some for next week!

In other news, James began wiring the servo motors and ultrasonic sensors to the power supply and assuring that equal power was going to all devices connected. 

Last, but definitely not least, the group typed up a draft final report. Feel free to read through the report and tell us about any comments, questions, or critiques you may have!

Draft Final Report

Week 6

Summary:

• Redesigned jaw
• Sensor problem solved
• Clay model done
• Plaster applied
• String force testing
• Servos and Ultrasonic sensors connected
• Mist machine apparatus set up

Welcome back!

The original 3-D printed jaw looked great and fit the ultrasonic sensors perfectly as intended, however Kate was afraid the latex mask will not stretch an extra half inch. So to be safe, Gary redesigned the jaw's dimensions to fit her latex masks dimensions. He will submit the 3-D print request soon. 

We finally figured out how to solve the problem of controlling two LEDs with two sensors. Ultimately, we ended up controlling two LEDs with one Arduino pin port and one sensor to dictate when these lights are high or low. Connecting the LEDs in parallel was the trick we were missing. 

Kate finished the long awaited clay model of the head! It looks fantastic; Game of Thrones props people could take some pointers from Kate for their dragons. 

Today in lab, Kate began and finished applying the plaster on the clay model to get a clean mold. It was a very messy process, but it is finished now. We used a two part plaster to one part water mixture, as in 2 pounds of powder for every 1 pound of water.

 Peter started using the Mark-10 in the lab to test the maximum force that could be applied a certain string. This string will be used to control the jaw and this testing puts some restraint on how much force someone applies when they pull their hand out of the jaw very fast. Here is a sample of how a load vs time graph.

Arjun and Gary put the ultrasonic code together with the servo code and got a basic algorithmic sequence going, where one action causes another.

Finally, James created the mist maker apparatus for Mario, hot gluing the tubing to the lid and the fan to the lid. In James's words, it is an "Ultrasonic Mist-Making Delivery Device"

Week 5

Summary:

• Started detailing the dragon head
• Began building the neck structure
• Created circuit diagrams 
• Ultransonic problems
• Latex and 3-D printed parts are here!

Hey!

 Kate started detailing Mario's head and finished scaling one side of his face. The head is coming along wonderfully and Kate will go to buy the plaster molds this weekend at Plaza!

Also, James started working on the circuit diagram, including the ultrasonic sensors, servo motors, and DC motors and showing how they will connect to the Arduino Uno board. 

Pete started building the neck structure out of K'nex and thinking about how the motor will attach to this structure to lift the head off the ground. 

Meanwhile, Gary, Arjun, and I are still running into the same problems with running two ultrasonic sensors and two LEDs on the same breadboard. One of the LEDs always stays on. We are trying to find a way around this issue by connecting two LEDs to one pin on the Arduino instead of one pin for each LED. It's a work in progress.

On a more positive note, the latex Professor Terranova ordered came in today! Also, the 3-D printed part for the dragon's jaw came in today and it looks fantastic. One problem that we may run into later is the size difference between the clay jaw and the 3-D printed one. Hopefully, the sizing will be manageable, if not, Gary will resize and print the parts.