Week 13

This past week we spent most of our time working on our final presentation and also trying to fix the printer. Our teammate Jezz helped us replace some parts that the printer needed, things like the thermistor. However, since the quality of the printer is still not great, some of the layers are not printing right. We contacted Professor Youssefi to see if he could print some cabins for us. He will attempt to print 4 but we will continue to try and print them at the shop.

FINAL PRESENTATION

WEEK 12

This week we continued placing all the metal inserts in the bogies. And we will start printing this week.

WEEK 11

We continued working on placing the metal inserts in the bogies.

Week 10

This week we were already able to order the head inserts for our top plate and we will start adding them to the holes next week. We haven't started printing the new cabins because we are waiting for the controls team to do some testing to see what other kind of sensors they want to add and where they want to add them. But the cabins are being made bigger to accommodate the extra hardware that the team wants to add.

Week 9

This past weekend we were able to successfully have the bogie working for Paseo Prototype. After having it run for multiple times at the event we saw that sometimes the bogie would fall because it would collide with other bogies or because some one would stop it and when it hits the ground all of the bogie parts survive the fall but the smaller part of the cabin would get cracks at the top and bottom. Therefore, the design of the cabin will be edit by making the cabins with thicker walls for the hinge and the part of the cabin that attaches to the bogie to have more support. Also sometimes the link of the switching mechanism will fall off and new longer links will be made. We will also purchase head set inserts will be purchase for better tapping of holes for screw attachments. The Paseo event was this past Saturday and most of the week was spent on getting ready for the event but the rest of the time was spend on getting ready for Presentation #2 of this semester.

WEEK 8 / SPRING BREAK

Proffesor Youssefi was able to print for us most of the parts needed to make all of the 6 bogies. He gave us the parts before spring break and during spring break we were able to put together 6 bogies. We are just missing 3 side plates from him to have everything completed. We prefer to use his prints because the quality is a lot better because he uses a Uprint printer, and they are ABS parts printed at 100% infill.

3D printed parts that Professor Youssefi printed for us. 

This is one of the bogies we put together. We only have two with all of the components inside. The controls team says they will be able to have more components ready to put inside the cabins on Wednesday before class. 

As of Sunday April 2nd we have 5 and a half cabins printed. All of the bogies are completed with some of the parts that Ernest was able to print before the tech shop closed. We met on the Sunday before spring break to test out the bogies. And also this past Friday and Saturday. The controls team and the app team were able to test out two bogies. They told us that we had to file one of the parts of the bogie because it was hitting the metal strip that was mounted on the track by the positioning team. And we met on Saturday to file those parts and tap more holes one the cabins and on other parts. It was also suggested by the controls team that also suggested that we put more washers on the top bearings and that was taken care of on Saturday. We were also able to improve our switching mechanism on Saturday. Sometimes the pins would come off but now the pins have solder at the ends and that prevents it from coming off. While Ernest was fixing the pins, Moralma was working on fixing the 3D printer and it now works and we been able to finish printing our cabins. We also spent some time this Saturday fixing some of the stuff on our bogies because they are being used by different teams and sometimes things on the bogie are not were they are suppose to be placed.

The cabins have been printing at the design center since this Saturday.

WEEK 7

            The first printed cabin was tested with the components of the controls team on Sunday March 19th, and the controls team said that the space inside the cabin is big enough for all their components. They want new holes to be added at the back and also to make the back wall of the bogie to be smaller. The RFID slot had to be made a bit bigger. And the hole at the top where we attach the bogie had to be 0.25 inches slimmer so that it will be easier to screw the bogie. The holes of the ultrasonic sensor will now only be on one side of the cabin and the other half will be made smaller. 

             We also spoke with professor Youssefi because he was concern that we wanted too many parts printed but he said he was going to do the best he could to get us as many bogies printed since the 3D printer is also being used by a robotics class. He said he will give us at least one set of a bogie by this week. Ernest is continuing to print as many parts as we can at the shop, and Moralma as many cabins before the shop closes on March 23rd. 

              We are also waiting to test out our switching mechanism since we are still waiting on some parts to be delivered. 

The new design of the cabin being printed this week. 

The new smaller left side of the cabin. 

WEEK 6

We did a lot of printing this week. There was some problems with the printing of the bogie because although the parts of the bogie were small enough for the 3D printer to print the printer kept shifting the layers when the bogie was printed and the bogie had to made smaller. The other parts of the bogie are also still being printed at the tech shop.

Week 5 - March 1st - 8th

This week besides working on touching up our presentation Ernest continued to 3D print some of the parts at the tech shop, Moralma continued to make final changes to the cabin before the presentation and we need to 3D print it this weekend, and we sent more parts to be printed with Professor Youssefi. He has replied to us more regularly and he emailed us today letting us know that he might have all the parts we sent him to print, ready by next week. We will start printing the cabin this weekend to have some at least printed by next Wednesday to show the controls team.

For future Presentations:
Our presentation went well and Ron suggested that for the next presentation, we all move our logos to the bottom of the page. Along with each slide we should put the name of the person presenting at the corner. Eric also suggested that we have the first slide explaining the general information of Spartan Superway and on the second page explain how our 1/12 scale team  is significant for the project. This is something our team has to improve and follow Eric's directions.

Spring Presentation #1

Week 4: Feb 23rd - Feb 28

This week the team started to work on our presentation which we will give next week. There is 3D printing being done. Since we had problems with the 3D printing in the shop we will continue to printing with Professor Youssefi, at the tech shop and with our fellow student Jez Garjaro. We had problems contacting Professor Youssefi, but we finally reach contact with him. We weren't able to use his 3D printer last week because he was using it for his class and we are sending him some parts this week for him to have them printed. We will also borrow some filament from the shop to go print at the Tech shop. We will attempt to have a 3D printed cabin to show next week in our presentation. Ernest communicated with the positioning and controls team regarding the holes needed on our parts in order for them to mount their sensors. We wanted to make sure we have the right size and amount of holes before printing the parts.

WEEK 3 : FEB 16th -- Feb 22nd

This is what we accomplished this week:

• We ordered the right shoulder tap screws and more 4-40 screws 
• We learned we have to change the dimension of one of our parts to make it easier to tap wholes 
• Moralma took her Tech Training on Thursday and now the whole team will have access to 3D printing 
• We are working on making a new cabin we are focusing on changing 3 main things 
• The new cabin will have a larger space inside to accommodate the battery pack which has a size of  1.16 x1.16x 2'' and the mega arduino 
• We are leaving the holes on the front of the cabin because the control team needs them 
• The sides of the cabin will be flatter to make it easier for the controls team to attach their sensors
• We are also trying to figure out a way to assemble the whole cabin without the use of glue as because we don't wan to use glue as the past teams did 

We will have flatter surfaces to accommodate the needs of the controls  team 

We are making the inside of the cabin bigger and leaving the front holes 

We are  trying to think of a new way of how the cabin will be hold together without the use of glue 

Week 2 --- Feb 8th -- 15th

This week we were able to: 

- To do inventory of parts such as gears, wheels, nuts and shoulder screws. 

- Ernest was able to order the needed gears, and they will arrive soon 

- We email Prof. Youseffi to print more bogie parts with him. 

- We are waiting for other teams to finalize their hole placements for sensors to finalize our bogie design. 

- We will be soon be ready to produce the 6 bogies

Week 2/1 --- 2/7 Update

This week we were able to do accomplish the following:

• Moralma requested approval to Sign up for a membership at for Tech shop to have access to the 3D printer at the shop
• Make the switching mechanism bigger
• Start Unifying some parts of the bogie to reduce the amount of screws use
• Prepare to order more brackets, gears, wheels, rods and motor mounts