Module Evaluation
In this evaluation is it necessary to consider and analyse the positive and negative aspects of the design process and final product for my Systems and control module.
In terms of how well the product addresses the original brief I set, although I encountered a fair few problems throughout the design process my final product works aesthetic and functionally as originally intended, a Green flashing Christmas tree table centre piece.
As part of the initial research I felt it was necessary to conduct primary research to get some feed back on the type of product people may want or would like to see made in order to help me understand the need for the product I was creating. This helped me considerably in coming up with a product idea and feel I have made something people would like to have and not just for the sake of making something.
I was fairly confident with the product research and design research however the actual Systems and controls part seemed like a massive mountain to conquer, as a starting point I identified the gaps in my knowledge I needed to fill in order to make a good start. For me the gaps were was how I was going to create my program successfully on picaxe, so started looking through manual 2 to see the type of commands I may want to include which helped me understand the capabilities of the pic (which surprised me). I starting putting together very simple programs to work out how i was going to make my LED's flash. I was also very unsure how to start building a circuit as I have never done this before, so using circuit wizard to play around with layouts and plan out a circuit before building a physical circuit would be a good place to start.
I felt that considering my lack of experience I needed to be realistic about what I was going to design and thought it was best to do something fairly simple however try and elaborate on it as much as possible as I didn’t want it to seem I was picking something easy, I just did not want to end up with nothing at the end of the module. I was originally going to create a musical centre piece however after further research It became clear that having a tune playing could become annoying whilst people were eating Christmas dinner and having subtle lights flashing would be more appropriate.
The final concept for my product was the direct result of my primary research coupled with other research into a ‘digital Christmas’ .The criteria set for this choice was a green, flashing Christmas tree to sit in the middle of the table as a centre piece as it was felt by the people answering my questionnaire that these were the most desirable elements for a Christmas product.
In terms of modelling for the product I created test plates for the casing I intended to use to see how successfully it fitted together and how I could place the electronic components inside. Doing so made me realise that I needed to place the slots closer together to improve stability, as the casing was wobbly. A problem I had with modelling was I didn’t know the amount of electronic components needed to be place inside so I couldn’t determine appropriate size at this stage. The most useful thing I did was measure and cut test holes for lED’s and switch to make sure they fitted correctly. Modifications for the casing didn’t become apparent until much later in the design process and in hindsight I should spent much longer on modelling as it may have prevented me coming unstuck later on, when the casing I had created didn’t fit all of my led’s, battery pack and circuit boards as i had underestimated how much space I might need.
Other practice work I did was putting together a tester program on picaxe to see what I was working towards. It became apparent that to put in lots of different flashes my program would be miles long. I found a section on sub flashes in picaxe manual 2, meaning I could create small sections of program and then ‘goto’ that section multiple times without having to write the same section of program over and over again. As my program wasn’t particularly complex I though it was important to make it as tidy and well formed as possible. This made me more aware about good practice when designing programs. I could have made my program miles long and it would have worked the same.
Most of the design work was done on 2D design as i was cutting flat plates and then slotting them together to create a 3D model, In the future i would have liked to have experimented with different CAD machine to see i could have produced my case differently, however due to time restraints and the fact the laser cutter did the job I wanted perfectly I did not utilise other machines.
Time management played a big part throughout the design process particularly during manufacturing, as I should have allowed more time. I didn’t have time for error or faultfinding meaning I had to make dramatic decisions and cut out parts of the design I wanted to include such as a fourth set of led’s and switch controlled by my program, I had made a potential divider and intended on adding a command onto my program however as I ran out of time had to use a simple circuit controlled on/off function. However any decision made did not affect the aesthetics or functionality to the extend it didn’t conform to the original brief and specification, I had to make certain changes to ensure I had a finished product by the deadline.
In terms of pitfalls I did not envision during manufacturing one of the major issues I faced were faults in my case design. I hadn’t allowed enough space to fit the battery pack and other electronic components rendering my current case useless. Other design faults included forgetting to put a hole for the switch, and the LED holes being placed too closely to the corners of the packaging making it a too tight fit when placing the led’s and resistors.
After soldering all my rows of 40 led’s and resistors together i realised I had too many wires to fit all four rows inside the packaging, looked at my options but I couldn’t cut them all down and re-do as there was very little time left, I made the decision to take out the biggest row leaving just three rows which I could space further apart creating more room inside and then modify my program. Other packaging related problems were that I had no way of accessing the batteries pack after the product was sealed up. It became very clear at the stage I needed to re design my plates and add a casing on the bottom with a opening, which I did and solved all these problems. It was after encountering these problems it made me very aware that I need to consider my designing more careful before rushing ahead and making and something I will do differently in future modules.
Towards the end of manufacturing my circuit kept cutting out when moved which indicated a loose connection of some sort, however as I had a lot of wires it seemed like a mountain to conquer. However when inspecting the circuit board it turned it that I had burnt the track meaning there were gaps on my +volts rail, so soldered connections to create a join which solved the problem. I need to be more careful when soldering ensuring I don’t leave the iron on the board too long. Another unexpected problem encountered was with the batteries I was using, the ‘nipple’ was too short to make a good connection in the battery case meaning the charge wasn’t passing through into the circuit. After changing the battery it was fine
After getting the circuit to work I felt the flashes were too slow paced and made the product a tad boring. I went back onto picaxe and experiment with decreasing the speed lower than 1000 (something I didn’t think was possible) I put the speed down to 500, but it made the flashes look dim as opposed to speeding up so decreased to a tenth of a second which improved the speed and gave the product a much better pace.
My specification was Realistic in taking into consideration time and ability levels however in hindsight I could have really pushed the idea of a “digital Christmas’ into the aesthetic aspects of the design. I also started using dye sublimation in other areas of the course and wish I had incorporated it into this module. Problems and wishes aside my product does work as originally intended and reflects the results from the primary research.
What I learnt during this module is how to put together a working circuit, good practice such as using sleeve to protect exposed parts, cable ties, insulation tape. Not to assume that problems are not complicated and can be as simples as the battery not working, or put the wrong way around. Doing simple checks, methodical. Using electronics software such as circuit wizard to create a circuit diagram, making sense of what's happening in a circuit before manufacturing. Having to create a new circuit board for my transistors put me in control and think about how I laid out the board, ensuring good practices such as ensuring the connections are straight forward and convoluted.
Initially when first approaching this module I felt like I would never be able to produce anything! It all seemed so complicated and found it difficult getting to know the terminology of things and lacked confidence when dealing with this topic. I can now comfortably work on picaxe and am able to put together a working program. Personally I am fairly pleased with my final product considering I struggled at various stages of the design process. When first confronted with this module i was dubious about what i would achieve and lacked alot of confidence when approaching systems and control. After completing i realised that it was not as complicated and scary as i first thought.
In terms of how well the product addresses the original brief I set, although I encountered a fair few problems throughout the design process my final product works aesthetic and functionally as originally intended, a Green flashing Christmas tree table centre piece.
As part of the initial research I felt it was necessary to conduct primary research to get some feed back on the type of product people may want or would like to see made in order to help me understand the need for the product I was creating. This helped me considerably in coming up with a product idea and feel I have made something people would like to have and not just for the sake of making something.
I was fairly confident with the product research and design research however the actual Systems and controls part seemed like a massive mountain to conquer, as a starting point I identified the gaps in my knowledge I needed to fill in order to make a good start. For me the gaps were was how I was going to create my program successfully on picaxe, so started looking through manual 2 to see the type of commands I may want to include which helped me understand the capabilities of the pic (which surprised me). I starting putting together very simple programs to work out how i was going to make my LED's flash. I was also very unsure how to start building a circuit as I have never done this before, so using circuit wizard to play around with layouts and plan out a circuit before building a physical circuit would be a good place to start.
I felt that considering my lack of experience I needed to be realistic about what I was going to design and thought it was best to do something fairly simple however try and elaborate on it as much as possible as I didn’t want it to seem I was picking something easy, I just did not want to end up with nothing at the end of the module. I was originally going to create a musical centre piece however after further research It became clear that having a tune playing could become annoying whilst people were eating Christmas dinner and having subtle lights flashing would be more appropriate.
The final concept for my product was the direct result of my primary research coupled with other research into a ‘digital Christmas’ .The criteria set for this choice was a green, flashing Christmas tree to sit in the middle of the table as a centre piece as it was felt by the people answering my questionnaire that these were the most desirable elements for a Christmas product.
In terms of modelling for the product I created test plates for the casing I intended to use to see how successfully it fitted together and how I could place the electronic components inside. Doing so made me realise that I needed to place the slots closer together to improve stability, as the casing was wobbly. A problem I had with modelling was I didn’t know the amount of electronic components needed to be place inside so I couldn’t determine appropriate size at this stage. The most useful thing I did was measure and cut test holes for lED’s and switch to make sure they fitted correctly. Modifications for the casing didn’t become apparent until much later in the design process and in hindsight I should spent much longer on modelling as it may have prevented me coming unstuck later on, when the casing I had created didn’t fit all of my led’s, battery pack and circuit boards as i had underestimated how much space I might need.
Other practice work I did was putting together a tester program on picaxe to see what I was working towards. It became apparent that to put in lots of different flashes my program would be miles long. I found a section on sub flashes in picaxe manual 2, meaning I could create small sections of program and then ‘goto’ that section multiple times without having to write the same section of program over and over again. As my program wasn’t particularly complex I though it was important to make it as tidy and well formed as possible. This made me more aware about good practice when designing programs. I could have made my program miles long and it would have worked the same.
Most of the design work was done on 2D design as i was cutting flat plates and then slotting them together to create a 3D model, In the future i would have liked to have experimented with different CAD machine to see i could have produced my case differently, however due to time restraints and the fact the laser cutter did the job I wanted perfectly I did not utilise other machines.
Time management played a big part throughout the design process particularly during manufacturing, as I should have allowed more time. I didn’t have time for error or faultfinding meaning I had to make dramatic decisions and cut out parts of the design I wanted to include such as a fourth set of led’s and switch controlled by my program, I had made a potential divider and intended on adding a command onto my program however as I ran out of time had to use a simple circuit controlled on/off function. However any decision made did not affect the aesthetics or functionality to the extend it didn’t conform to the original brief and specification, I had to make certain changes to ensure I had a finished product by the deadline.
In terms of pitfalls I did not envision during manufacturing one of the major issues I faced were faults in my case design. I hadn’t allowed enough space to fit the battery pack and other electronic components rendering my current case useless. Other design faults included forgetting to put a hole for the switch, and the LED holes being placed too closely to the corners of the packaging making it a too tight fit when placing the led’s and resistors.
After soldering all my rows of 40 led’s and resistors together i realised I had too many wires to fit all four rows inside the packaging, looked at my options but I couldn’t cut them all down and re-do as there was very little time left, I made the decision to take out the biggest row leaving just three rows which I could space further apart creating more room inside and then modify my program. Other packaging related problems were that I had no way of accessing the batteries pack after the product was sealed up. It became very clear at the stage I needed to re design my plates and add a casing on the bottom with a opening, which I did and solved all these problems. It was after encountering these problems it made me very aware that I need to consider my designing more careful before rushing ahead and making and something I will do differently in future modules.
Towards the end of manufacturing my circuit kept cutting out when moved which indicated a loose connection of some sort, however as I had a lot of wires it seemed like a mountain to conquer. However when inspecting the circuit board it turned it that I had burnt the track meaning there were gaps on my +volts rail, so soldered connections to create a join which solved the problem. I need to be more careful when soldering ensuring I don’t leave the iron on the board too long. Another unexpected problem encountered was with the batteries I was using, the ‘nipple’ was too short to make a good connection in the battery case meaning the charge wasn’t passing through into the circuit. After changing the battery it was fine
After getting the circuit to work I felt the flashes were too slow paced and made the product a tad boring. I went back onto picaxe and experiment with decreasing the speed lower than 1000 (something I didn’t think was possible) I put the speed down to 500, but it made the flashes look dim as opposed to speeding up so decreased to a tenth of a second which improved the speed and gave the product a much better pace.
My specification was Realistic in taking into consideration time and ability levels however in hindsight I could have really pushed the idea of a “digital Christmas’ into the aesthetic aspects of the design. I also started using dye sublimation in other areas of the course and wish I had incorporated it into this module. Problems and wishes aside my product does work as originally intended and reflects the results from the primary research.
What I learnt during this module is how to put together a working circuit, good practice such as using sleeve to protect exposed parts, cable ties, insulation tape. Not to assume that problems are not complicated and can be as simples as the battery not working, or put the wrong way around. Doing simple checks, methodical. Using electronics software such as circuit wizard to create a circuit diagram, making sense of what's happening in a circuit before manufacturing. Having to create a new circuit board for my transistors put me in control and think about how I laid out the board, ensuring good practices such as ensuring the connections are straight forward and convoluted.
Initially when first approaching this module I felt like I would never be able to produce anything! It all seemed so complicated and found it difficult getting to know the terminology of things and lacked confidence when dealing with this topic. I can now comfortably work on picaxe and am able to put together a working program. Personally I am fairly pleased with my final product considering I struggled at various stages of the design process. When first confronted with this module i was dubious about what i would achieve and lacked alot of confidence when approaching systems and control. After completing i realised that it was not as complicated and scary as i first thought.