When: 26 July 2019, 12:30pm
Members present: Carissa, Claudia, Vanessa (and Alexis – she worked from home today!)
Tasks for today:
- Rewire our machine such that all components are powered by the existing internal power supply of the Ender 3 3D Printer.
- Organise wires to minimise clutter.
- Finish up presentation slides and start work on script.
Task 3 | Finish up presentation slides and start work on script
We started off the day by finishing up the presentation slides that we started on yesterday! It didn’t take very long to get all the content out, so after that we moved on to our other tasks. We’ll probably come back to refine our slides later in the day!
Task 1 | Rewire our machine to use the existing internal power supply
This was an extension from yesterday, where we rewired our machine such that the sewing module and printing base no longer rely on the external power supply. Today, we rewired the machine such that the jabbing stepper motor also relies on the same existing internal power source. This required us to solder a jumper wire onto our Ramps 1.4 that controls Marlin so that it can accommodate four power cables instead of two.
Claudia and Vanessa, in the process of rewiring our machine.Β
However, when we tested the machine with the new wiring, the jabbing stepper motor didn’t run at all. So, we asked Tony for help (as usual!). Tony helped us to fix the soldering, after which we proceeded to rewire again, ensuring that all the wires were connected properly. We then tested out again with the external power source (just to be sure that the wiring is all correct), and it works!! Thank you Tony for your help!
Task 2 | Organise wires to minimise clutter
After all the rewiring, Vanessa and Carissa then worked to tidy up the mess which is our wires. Our cluttered wires could pose a safety hazard, especially those wires that could potentially get caught in moving parts such as the linear actuator. As a sort of temporary fix, Vanessa and Carissa wound up the wires and secured them with a combination of masking tape, electrical tape, cable ties and even a PVC pipe.
Our (slightly more) organised wires. It’s not super neat but it’s a good start!
We then disconnected our printer from the external power supply, and connected it to the existing internal power supply on the Ender 3. Now for the moment of truth – will our printer work without any external power supply to support it?
Connected to the internal power source, slightly organised wires, and a working printer! Hooray! π
IT WORKS!! Finally, our printer is all grown up and doesn’t need to rely on external power sources. π
The next thing we need to do will be to hot glue all the wires to our Ramps 1.4 board to ensure that it does not come undone during printing. Then, we’ll need to tidy up and put all the controllers and bulky wires on the same surface to make it easier to transport our machine. Here’s our final product:
The Ramps 1.4 board, Arduino board and PVC pipe containing a connecting wire, all mounted onto the same platform.Β
Although our wires still look pretty messy, with the reorganised wires and platform, there is less chance of the wires catching onto moving parts, which makes our machine much safer to use. It’s also much more convenient to move the machine now that all the wired parts are effectively mounted on the same platform!
Short talk with Mr Hanyang
Mr Hanyang came around to check on our progress today, and he gave us a suggestion for future work: we could cut out the embroidered shapes and turn them into keychains! This would expand our applications, and it might make our machine more appealing to others. Following this line of thought, Carissa also suggested that we could create pencil cases/pouches with embroidered designs using the felt that has designs felted on by our machine.
Task 3 | Finish up presentation slides and start work on script
We’re back to refining our presentation slides to make them more presentable! Today we added more photos, screenshots and GIFs to spice up our slides. We also started figuring out who will be presenting which section, and began typing out a script. But all of that’s gonna be a secret for now! π€«
What’s not a secret is we ordered Korean food today! π°π·
See you again on Monday!