Initial Phase

As with any project, the designs will keep changing and evolving. In this page, we will show the designs of our smart fan attachment.

Making a smart fan attachment
Figure 2.1: Design 1 of the attachment consists of the linear actuator pushing the short side of the 3D-printed ‘L’, which is hinged at the bent portion of the ‘L’, to press down on a button.
Figure 2.2: In this design, the linear actuator will be attached to a 3D-printed clasp, and will push the button directly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2.3: The linear actuator will push on one end of the see-saw, which will push down on the button from the other end.

 

Figure 3.1: The linear actuators and Raspberry Pi will be attached to a sleeve for it to be attached on to the body of the fan. In this design, there will be holes for the button to poke through, which also serves as anchors for the sleeve.
Figure 3.2: Alternative designs of the sleeve consists of a clamp design, with the ability to fasten the clamp at the back of the fan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4: A 3D Design of the sleeve and the mechanism for pushing buttons.

Figure 4:

1) There are 8 holes for the solenoid actuators to be placed. The protruding end of the actuator will be attached to the bars. When the circuit is closed, the protruding part of the actuators will retract and pull the bars back, pressing the buttons.
2) The bars will have one solenoid actuator attached to each end of the bar. When the solenoid actuators retract, the bar will be pulled back and will press the buttons.
3) The holes of the body will correspond to the buttons on the fan. The buttons will fit through the holes and be pressed when the solenoid actuators and bars are retracted.

Prototype Images

On 6 July, we printed the body of the attachment to see if it fits our fan.

We noticed that the fan’s button do not pop out very much, because the fan’s body is less elliptical as compared to our design, hence we will need to do some tweaking.