The final useless box post for now...

I was just going through the pictures of the project and realized I had forgotten to post some pictures from a few days ago.

This first picture is what the arm was changed to after we realized that the 3-D printed arm we made wasn't quite long enough and was getting caught on the box.  As you can see on the right side of the arm, there is a servo motor attachment built into the arm.

This picture shows the light switch that we are using in place of a toggle switch, and on the bottom of it, the servo motor is attached.  This design has not been altered. 

 

This video shows the apparent glitches and issues with our box. The video is from after the 3D printed arm as well as our first servo motor had both broken.  Clearly there are many issues with our design which could be altered with more time and resources.

 

Overview of week 12/8 - 12/14

So here are a couple of pictures of the final design of the useless box with some modifications:  the arm works better when the black plastic platform that holds the breadboard and the arduino board is not in the box, so we've re-arranged the internal orientation of the box as seen below.

 

Date: 12/9/13

Members: McKenzie, Alex, Mike, Schayne

Time: 1.5 hrs

- Finished construction of box and some testing with minor issues 

Final Design Project: ‘The Useless Box’ brought to you by Team Bryan 22201

1.0 Summary

     Our design is that of a useless box, an idea Team Bryan 22201 haphazardly stumbled upon when researching new and exciting arduino powered machines, per request of Professor Sullivan. Team Bryan was originally enticed by the infamous ‘inebriator,’ however we were eventually won over by the ‘useless box,’ a project we felt would be manageable for the amount of time we had to complete both design and construction of said box. The purpose of the useless box is a machine that when manually switched on, will switch itself off. To first learn the habits of the box, we studied many videos from many different creators, all with a different take on how the box should be constructed. With this vital information in hand, we were able to begin hashing out ideas and designs for our very own absolutely useless box. Our design includes a balsa wood jewelry box that we reconstructed into the outer shell for our machine, a push arm consisting of 4 links that we designed in Solidworks and 3D printed, as well as various switches that to this day we still have not perfected the use of. This box clearly appeals to the college crowd as well as to any engineer that enjoys playing with Solidworks and Arduinos. While Team Bryan’s useless box has not been perfected, we have greatly enjoyed the design and build process involved and hope to continue work on this box in the future. 

 2.0 Introduction 

     This report presents a design for a ‘useless box’. The purpose of the useless box is to create a machine with the sole objective being able to turn itself off. We utilized a prefabricated box for the base of our box and from there built on the notion of using a servo motor to fulfill our objective. Based on other useless boxes we determined that the primary method to turn off the box would be to design an apparatus that shoots a finger out from under the lid of the box to flip the switch back into the off position. The main objectives of our design from this point were to determine a method to move our servo motor the correct amount and determine the shape/size of our finger and switch. 
     In working with the servo motor it was easy to program it using our arduino boards to move it a certain amount when the switch is flipped then have it rotate back to its starting position. Based on this we decided that to make it easier we would move our axis of rotation as close as possible to the switch because we could then simply modify the design of the finger to adjust it into the correct position for the finger to flip the switch. As we were limited in our choice of switch we were forced to test our servo with a more general shape of a light switch which we eventually incorporated into our final design. 
     Designing the finger was a much harder part as the geometry of a finger that will disappear under the lid was difficult to figure out. Using a base model of the light switch in solidworks we were able to determine a width for our finger and from there a scale necessary for it to be on. By placing the servo motor as close as possible to the switch we were able to create a drawing of the switch and servo together in order to figure out the geometry based on minimum dimension seen in Figures 1 and 2.

Figure 1: Concept design of “Useless Box” with minimum required dimensions

Figure 2: Initial design of finger with different placements of servo and switch 

     Eventually realizing we couldn’t be sure of our choice in switch and the geometry of our parts we went to a design for our finger that allowed us to adjust its dimensions after being printed. By making four different sized finger joints we were able to adjust the geometry of our finger based on our final design for the box and our decision on which switch to use. 

3.0 Analysis 

     Essentially the ‘useless box’ is a box comprising of a robotic arm powered by a small servo motor, which is activated by a toggle switch. When the switch is turned to the ‘on’ position, the arm is activated inside the box. In one motion, it then opens the box up, flips the switch back into the ‘off’ position, and finally retreats back into the box. 
     The first part of the design we looked for, which was crucial to the project working, was the box to hold the arm, motor, switch, and arduino; we needed a box made of out of very light wood so that the arm would be able to open it up while putting as little strain on the arm as possible. The decision to use balsa wood was made and thus a balsa wood jewelry box was purchased. The cover to the box was taken off and cut into two pieces of different lengths. They were then reattached to the box; the shorter piece is glued down, while the longer piece had the hinges moved so that it opens in a different direction. 
     The arm used in the design was 3D printed out of ABS plastic using four individual pieces. The hardest part about creating the arm was building it so that it would be able to open up the cover to the box, and then be able to extend far enough to flip the switch back without getting caught on the cover on the way back into the box. 
     For the motor that controls the arms motion, we incorporated the arduino’s micro servo motor into the box. Using the servo motor, the arm has about 70 degrees of rotation. This also affects the way that the arm is designed, because its ability to flip the switch with only 70 degrees of rotation depends completely on the angles of the bends in the arm. 
     The motor also affects the switch that needs to be used for the design. The servo motor has to be strong enough to open the box and then flip the switch. A switch with as little resistance and friction as possible is optimal, but not easy to come by. This leads into where most of the problems with the design came from. 
     The motor simply did not have the strength to flip the toggle switches we purchased for testing. We tested five different toggle switches, four light switches (three of which acted as a toggle switch, and one was a sliding switch), a knife switch, two rocker switches, and a switch taken from a video-game controller. After going through about a dozen different switches, none of which could be switched solely by the power of the motor channeled through the arm, I finally tried to open up and smooth down one of the switches so that it would have less friction acting on it, but still be able to do its job. We also looked into buying a stronger a stronger motor, but quickly found that there were none in our price range that would work well with our arduino board. 
     The switch that worked the best was one of the light switches; this was the switch that was smoothed down, and will be used for the final design. However, the design still isn’t perfect. We may have to use something different to make the arm out of. 

4.0 Conclusion 

     The Useless box is exactly as it says, useless. The purpose of this box is solely for an entertainment purpose. Putting the whole box together in itself has few components and is rather simple, regardless of the fact that our group discovered that even though something appears easy it may not be as easy as initially thought. Creating a shape for the arm was difficult so there were many small pieces made that can be connected together for an appropriate arm that will hit the switch when the switch is pressed, as well as making sure the motor and arm were strong enough to flip the switch back. With the right materials the creation process could have gone smoother but overall getting the components for the box as well as the code and internal pieces was rather simple and easy to gather. As of now there is no complication with putting the box together but it has not been tested for completed functionality.

Images of push arm sections

Links for the mechanical push arm that were sent in to be 3D printed and received from printing on Monday 12/9/13

Project summary work

Group must write a 3-4 page project summary to accompany presentation of the design


McKenzie - Summary
- synopsis of design itself
- motivation 
- design's effectiveness
- target audience
- enough background info for report to stand alone
- also help write Discussion section

Schayne - Introduction
(Make sure to really elaborate on this section, refer to figures included in the text as needed) 
- design problem 
- objectives of design
- assumptions for design
- design alternatives
- selection of design being used

Alex - Discussion
(All of these can be split into sub sections, figures helpful too)
- present design as a whole
- theory behind design
- problems encountered (or anticipated)
- how to overcome problems
- results of test on design

Mike - Conclusion
- summarize design and testing work
- assess how design meets objectives from intro (if not, analyze why and how to fix)
- give future perspective of project

Overview of week 12/1 - 12/7

This week's meetings...

Wednesday:
Meeting: 12/4
Length: 2 hr
Members Present: McKenzie, Alex, Mike, Schayne

- Could not complete any construction of the useless box as we have not recieved our 3D printed push arm yet
- Completed more switch testing, we have found this to be the greatest hassle in creating our project


Friday
Meeting: 12/6
Length: 0 hr

- Decided not to meet on Friday, still no part printed so we did not have enough work to do 

Overview of week 11/24 - 11/30

This week's meetings...

Monday:
Meeting: 11/25
Length: 2 hr
Members Present: McKenzie, Alex, Mike, Schayne

- Alex and McKenzie tested more switches, decided to try both a rocker and a joystick switch, experiencing trouble with the switch resistance, too much for servo to push
- Easiest switch for the servo was the joystick however no on/off position, we don't believe it will work for the project 
- Schayne worked on finishing up the push arm in solidworks to be 3D printed and attached to the servo motor
- Mike worked on finishing up the motion study video of the arm and box for the blog

Tuesday:
Meeting: 11/26
Length: 1 hr
Members Present: McKenzie, Alex, Mike, Schayne

- Went over small details before the Thanksgiving break
- Push arm was submitted for 3D printing 
-  More testing on switches 

Switch testing

Currently working through which switch is going to work best with the arm.  We have 4 toggle switches, 5 light switches, a knife switch, a rocker switch and an UDLR switch similar to those used in video game controllors. 

Useless Box Overview

As we haven't posted a video of our idea yet, we are planning on building a 'useless box' powered by our arduino. This video is an overview of how it will perform and what it will look like.

We are currently working on specifications of the push arm that will push the switch and designing this in solidworks to print later on in the week.

This is a video of our switch code working with our switch and servo motor.

Meeting: 11/25
Length: 2 hrs
Members Present: McKenzie, Alex, Mike, Schayne

Overview of week 11/17 - 11/23

Overview of last week's two meetings...
Thursday:

Meeting: 11/21
Length: 1 hr 30 min
Members Present: McKenzie, Alex, Mike, Schayne

- Went over sketches, decided we couldn't finalize until we had exact dimensions of box
- Alex said he would bring in two boxes from home so we could decide on one
- Tested servo motor code with success, had it push and lift small books
- Worked furthur on code

Friday:

Meeting: 11/22
Length: 1 hr
Members Present: McKenzie, Alex, Mike, Schayne

No dimensions to work on sketches so we made a list of things to get for this week as well as completed further testing of servo motor.

Alex
Lowes:
- balsa wood
- small hinges
- toggle switch (3 pins?)
- 9V battery if you want?
- wire extensions
Bring:
- soldering iron
- hot glue fun
- boxes

McKenzie
- electrical tape
- solder
- post videos
- post summary of meeting

Schayne
- post sketches
- model of solid works finger

We decided to all research stronger servo motors as a backup if ours could not perform to specifications.

Video of test on servo motor

Here is a short video of our test on the servo motor with the LCD screen attached. We believe the servo will be strong enough to lift the switch arm.

Design Sketches with Minimum Required Dimensions

Latest Design Sketches:

Overview of week 11/10 - 11/16 along with code

Thursday 
Meeting: 11/14
Length: 45 min
Members Present: Alex, McKenzie, Mike, Schayne

- Found a sample code to go off of and edited it to suit our needs for the useless box. 
- Began sketches of the useless box, trying to figure out dimensions 

Code taken from instructables for use on useless box machine: