Weekly Progress

We set-up the ramp and the blocker and tested it by sliding a few pipette tips down. It was successful. Testing the new ramp and blocker.

We reprinted the ramp slices with the holes to attach them to the 3D printer frame already built in so we don’t need to drill the holes manually. Design of new ramp with holes at the bottom. (Credits: KK) Circling back to our idea for a blocker on 01/07, we also designed a blocker at … Continue reading New ramp design

We realised that we needed to be able to adjust the width of the gap between the ramp slices. Hence, we drilled holes into our ramp and attached them to a 3D printer frame using screws. Then, we slid some pipette tips down the ramp to test it. Drilling holes into our ramp slices to … Continue reading Drilling into the ramp

We tested our new ramp, and it seems to be working with the addition of masking tape at the end of it. Our new ramp.

Upon fiddling with the motion of the wheel, we discovered that some pipette tips don’t fall from the top of the wheel. Additionally, some pipette tips get stuck in the hole of the funnel. To circumvent these problems, we designed and 3D printed new holders for the wheel as well as a new funnel. Our … Continue reading Improvement of the blockers attached to the wheel

We noticed that after the pipette tips fall into the ramp, they would not stay in the ramp and would slide out of the ramp. To circumvent this problem, we decided to add a blocker at the end of the ramp instead of making the ramp longer, which would make our prototype unnecessarily long. We … Continue reading Creation of the ramp blocker idea

We had our weekly progress check with Dr Ho, who suggested with delve deeper into our design for the funnel again. Dr. Ho drawings. We taped the ledges we 3D printed to the wheel using masking tape, and held our funnel to the wheel to attempt to recreate our idea by putting pipette tips in … Continue reading Progress checking, wheeling

We finished assembling our Arduino kit today and tested it. We identified a missing component (a z-axis sliding plate), which we ordered today. We also coded the movement for the 3D printer using python. Finished Arduino assembly. Finished Python code to control movement of 3D printer. (Credits: Yuki) Additionally, our hamster wheel arrived, so we … Continue reading 3D Printers and Wheels

With the 3D printer machine built, we started assembling an Arduino kit to be used with the 3D printer machine. Process of assembling the Arduino, using parts provided by the Making and Tinkering Lab. With the ramp working, we did not see a reason to use the shutter that we 3D printed anymore. However, we … Continue reading Assembling the Arduino

We collected our 3D printed ramp and started experimenting with different ways to make sure the tips could slide down the ramp (i.e. changing the distance between the two blocks to see what the optimal distance to allow the tips to slide down by gravity is). During this process, we discovered that there is a … Continue reading Building the 3D printer frame