Sunday, April 16, 2017

Blog Report Week 13 - Justin

1. Provide the updated computer drawing for your individual RG setup. 
Figure 1: This is a basic schematic of my circuit. It excludes things such as power to components and some ground.

2. Explain your setup. 

Power will come to my setup in the form of a 5V pulse of electricity. This 5V will be directly connected to my motor. This motor will pull the stopping block in front of my ball, which will allow it to fall down the setup. The ball will land on a switch and activate it. This will allow 5V to run through the op-amp, increase to 7V, and trigger the relay. The relay will send voltage to an LED to start the next circuit while also powering a 555 timer that's 1st and 4th output will be hooked up to an AND gate. When this triggers, the LED will have power.

3. Provide photos of the circuit and setup. 
Figure 2: An overview of my circuit on the breadboard so far. 

Figure 3: The top view of my catching component.

Figure 4: The underside of my catching component that shows the switch.

Figure 5: A picture of the ramp system that I have built for the ball to travel down.

Figure 6: A close up picture of the motor on my mechanical component that will pull the stop block and allow the ball to roll down the ramp system. 


4. Provide at least 2 new videos of your setup in action, one being a failed attempt. 



Video 1: This is a failed attempt.

Video 2: This is a partially successful attempt. 

Video 3: This is a successful attempt

5. What failures did you have? How did you overcome them? 

    One of the main failures that I faced was getting the mechanical component to successfully land inside of the catching mechanism that I had built. I tried to overcome this by taping the component onto the table to prevent the small movements between attempts. At first I had trouble getting the relay to trigger when I wanted it to, but I solved this by playing with the resistor values on my op amp until I could get it to work. I also have trouble will getting the ball to start rolling. It is not perfectly round so sometimes when the stop block is released, the ball remains there.

5 comments:

  1. I cannot see an addition to your circuit complexity. I might be missing. Your drawing is not good quality. I expect a better, professional drawing.

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  2. Your mechanical aspect was very similar to my first one. Im wondering what you used to have the ball trigger the next motor after it falls down the entire ramp. From what i can see it looks like it pulls a wire or something? a suggestion for something else you could do is similar to what i ended up doing with mine. Using a heavier ball that lands on a force sensing resistor to trigger a transistor. This is just a thought but could help aesthetics and possible add some complexity to the circuit. Overall nice job though

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  3. I like how you set up your circuit. It might be still be a little bit simple, but you can still add more components and make it work. Maybe instead of letting the ball fall by positioning the force sensor, you could possibly build a ramp in order to lead it to where its supposed to be. If you get it to work it will do its job.

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  4. It seems like your circuit needs some more complexity to it. The mechanical part seems ok. However, the circuit section is lacking. There are minimal components involved and not a lot going on.

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  5. Overall, I think you have a very good idea. the circuit could use a little more complexity. Did you come across any complications that hindered your circuit? I know the opamp screwed me up for a little while.

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