Final Project

The first print failed, somehow it shifted twice during the print.

The second print was very successful, and even close to the eventual color that I want.

Mixing Oomoo 25.

Molding the floob.

Securing the floob in place.

Removing bubbles

Really hard to unmold since it is way harder than I expected.

Using Sorta Clear 12 with color changing pigments

Coated the floob so that it has a finer and glossy finish.

Ran the floob under water and half of it changed color to yellow.

Coating the floob and paiting the material to create a thin layer.

I then used this support so that the floob has an extra part that fits in the grodus and provide more stability. This also took 2 iterations since the first time I didn't let sorta clear set for long enough so it leaked on the floob.

First Attempt

Second Attempt

The first motor is not very good as it does not want to rotate a lot of the times.

I tried a second servo motor, it is a lot more reliable.

During the show and tell for wildcard week, I realized that I could use the laser induced graphene to make a heater.

According to the user manual of the plumbus, one can use it to cook an egg.

I asked Wedyan and she offered me an additional session on making a shape.

The egg shape cut out.

We then attached copper surrounding the egg shape trying to maximize current flow.

It was then tested with voltage, 12 volts turned out to be a nice fit. The graphene was protected by a thin layer so that it will not be scraped off, and we can feel the temperature.

I also tested on a wasted layer of sorta clear 12 with thermochronic pigments and as labeled by the red box, we can see that it loses the color. This perticular pigements changes from pink to yellow (not very obvious since I added a little bit) at 88F/30C.

Didn't like it since the support left an ugly trace, and the grodus was too long.

New mold was made with support printed inside.

Tried sticking the heater on the surface and cast on top of it. Didn't quite work since I used arcrylic paint on top of the heater trying to cover it up, but sorta clear bearly sets on top of it. Also it is very visible on the surface.

design

using white premium vinyl

The result, it does not stick on the side, so I tried one more vinyl cut covering this up, but not working. Eventually I used glue gun, and the scraper trying to smooth out the surface as much as I can, leaving least amount of glue but sufficient to stick the vinyl.

To cast a thin layer on top of surface with sorta clear 12, I waited around 30-35 minutes after mixing the material. The texture of the material is similar to liquid that flows very well, the plot time is 40 minutes and the set time is 12 hours. I waited half an hour so that the sorta clear is flowing slowly (it is setting), and then used the wooden stick to paint the sorta clear on top. The color of the material also need to be very dark since it will only leave a very thin layer. It also need to be sit on top of somethiing non flat instead of a table top. So that material can drip freely from the side instead of leaving a casted pool of material.

How it looks at the back, I really liked the side effect created by the mold, looks like the top of a crown.

I then added another layer of flesh color to make it match the original design better. (Also since this pigement finally arrived!!)

Waiting it to set.

Simple I2C connection

This is a preperation I did. I used wires to try to give some support for the chumbles, but not too long so that the front can be easily bent.

Chunbles before combined the two part mold. I failed the first time with too many bubbles encapsulated. I quickly opened it and waited until it somewhat sets, and then combined them again.

Chumble setting in mold, trying to secure it with a ton of clamps. so that there are even pressure and no bubbles will enter.

Very successful!

The front look

I used hot glue to keep them there, secure but not too secure so that the tips of the wires when moved create a vibration effect.

Dingle bop turned out to be a tricky one to mold and cast.

Claire helped me to cast the dingle bop (due to no access to the molding and casting room), due to the design it was not properly cured on top. And it was not stretchy enough to take the cast out in one piece.

On the top left is a 3D print piece that fits in the middle of the mold so that when taken out it will be a thin layer of material in between.

Combination of 3 colors. Really nice color!

Secured by rubber band. Interesting fact: whereever the rubber band is at, the material will not set (always sticky).

Four different iterations attempting to make the dingle bop.

Almost all failed results here. Some of them are barely attached or missing a part. Two of them were thin layer coated on 3D print which I didn't like since color is not good and it's too stiff. The version in the middle I liked a lot, since I broke one of the middle 3D piece so I ended up only using that as a mold, hoping to add some weight to the piece at the tip, so that it will bent a bit. I landed on a version where it's just a single two part mold without anything in the middle. Although it cannot bent a lot, but it was enough so that it bents and stays staight if I place it straight.

final look

As we all know, when you are praying, you need to pray and face the plumbus. So what if we made the praying a bit more fun with some audio in the background.

wiring

bug

I had this bug (and other bugs) the entire day as I was trying to work on this component. I tried a lot of different ways to fix the problem, none of them worked. I was very desperate and asked Leo for help. Leo unplugged and plugged my microcontroller. And that magically made it working.

I made a ad for my plumbus with laser cut.

Bad design since I was too tired. Need something to stop the board.

Plumbus design I used. credit: https://web.pdx.edu/~nboxwell/342/plumbus/

Final look

Putting all parts together were really exciting! Looked really nice just as I wanted!

I also 3D printed a stand for the plumbus.

I start by milling a PCB board. This is the electronic design.

The board design. The part on the left needed two zero ohm resistor in the end.

Failed. Since there was a line waiting on Roland. I opted to cutting the board with raser knife. After some time trying, I was able to cut the board nicely so that there are no shorts.

Failure detail.

This is accelerometer stacked on top of the MP3 module.

The wire of heat button is hidden under the floob.

Components being put inside the plumbus with tape and hot glue. A tiny power bank was included so that it can power the plumbus.

For three functionalities that I wanted to achieve -- 1. surface heats up (so that plumbus cooks an egg), 2. when grabbing on the floob, the chumbles starts to wiggle (by servo motor turning), 3. when praying (plumbus in the facing-up position), it plays an audio. Two were very cooperative.

heating up

touched and wiggle

The third functionality really gave me a hard time.

Quentin helped me debug for about 3 hours.

We found out that the position of the MP3 is not correct, it should be at 0x4A but is always found at 0x4D.

Changed this code in the original package of Arduino.
However, later it still doesn't work.

Anthony then helped and found a short (which Quentin and I both tested several times but didn't find out, or it wasn't shorted at that time), and he fixed it!

After solving the short issue, I was testing out the board, but my computer was not able to even find the board.
Anthony mentioned the theory that the current might be too high. I then tried to connect a seperate power source to the servo motor, but it still does not work.
Sadly after so many hours of trying to make this work (from 11pm to 6am), I decided that I will remove the accelerometer functionality. I then connected the two output feature to the same input device.