Project learnings

• We as a team learnt how to CAD using solidworks to bring our designs to life. While already having some previous experience with CAD it wasn’t too daunting but 3D printing which was a whole new domain required a lot of patience to learn. Given that the prints take time, failure or any errors in the design set us back considerably. So it was a learning experience to plan ahead, leave tolerances while designing and to always be patient and optimistic.
• We also learnt the value of prototyping, not only for the mechanical concepts but also for 3D prints. Its always better to make a small iteration first in order to ensure success later on.
• Another important thing was to keep testing all the ideas as long as they are feasible. A lot of times we assumed that our prototype would work and ended up cutting corners or skipping steps. This instead of speeding things up, slowed us down.
• All of us were beginners in terms of wiring electronics and coding with CNCjs and Marlin. Hence it was a very big challenge to learn both these software’s and apply them. Troubleshooting consumed a lot of our time and was often times demotivating. Come special term we learnt the expertise of Mr. Tony in these software’s and realised that it is always better to look around and ask for help.
• Another skill we picked up was documenting our thoughts, not only for this blog but also for our own references. It became common for the first few meetings for us to forget our ideas or tasks. Due to this we started keeping meeting minutes and making a main document with all our links in order to keep our team organized.
• Finally we learned how to coordinate amongst each others and work together efficiently even when pressure ramps up.

I want to extend my warm thanks to the following people that helped us along the way in making this project. Our learning experience would not have been complete without them

Course coordinators – Prof Andy Khong W H, Prof Leong Hanyang

MnT Lab Manager – Mr Gan “Tony” Eng Swee