What does it do?

A distiller purifies water through evaporation and recondensation. In terms of functionality I designed, mine to monitor when there is or isn't water and that signal is sent to a microprocessor which controls a relay switch and outlet. when there is no water left, a signal is sent to turn off the outlet which controls the heat element

Who's done what beforehand?

Nobody has done a water distiller before. In 2017 in one of the international FabLabs someone made a device for Essential Oil Distillation/Extraction link. Also, in 2012 someone made a water purifyer, which has the same end goal, but it is filter based so not at all like my device link.

What did you design?

I designed the distiller lid for 3D printing. I also designed the sensor and communication circuits and the power control portion of the system. I "designed" the code and lastly, I designed the housing for the heat element and used the fablight and welding for that

What materials and components were used?

3D printing, electronics parts from the lab, nRF radio, sheet metal. For a more complete list of parts see my 'Distiller Inventory' page

Where did they come from?

I used a mixture of outside parts and HTMAA inventory. I bought outside materials because the goal was to make this food safe and it also had to withstand high temperature and be water safe, which is a hard combination to find. Again, for in depth details on where my materials came from, see 'Distiller Inventory' page

How much did they cost?

The outside materials were just under $50 and I would estimate I used maximum $20 of HTMAA materials. $70 is more than others in the class but also significantly less than the other fablab distiller, which ended up at $300

What parts and systems were made?

The water sensor and wireless communication system were made by me. Also, the lid was made through additive fabrication and the condensation/runoff portion was assembled after that. The sheet metal housing for the heat element was made and also the main circuit.

What processes were used?

The board milling and sheet metal cutting was 2D design and subractive fabrication. The lid was 3D design and additive fabrication. There was also electrical design in the circuits. There is Networking and Communication through the radio. System Integration is admittably lacking. It just me 4x longer than I planned to create the individual components

What questions were answered?

I don't know if any questions were answered other than how not to build a distiller... Also, distillation is surprisingly inefficient a lot of the time.

How was it evaluated?

I'm evaluating this on the system's ability to sense and respond, which it can. It knows when there is or isn't water and it triggers power depending on that situation

What are the implications?

I originally wanted to pursue this project because of day 0 in South Africa last year. I thought, how can a country that borders the Ocean run out of drinking water. Large scale desalination projects are years from completion and controlled by the government. I was thinking about what if I could make a cheap, compact distiller for personal use. It solves a problem of desalination and purifying water, and almost everyone has access to a heat source, even if it's not electric. (side note: I am not naive or narcisistic enough to actually think I would solve the world water crisis on my own in a semester. I thought I could get some insight into what the biggest challenges to distillation are.) My distiller aside, a distiller in every home is far from a reality. Distillation is surprisingly inefficient I've discovered. A lot of energy is used to boil, then contain, then re-condense the H2O and the tradeoff isn't great.


2D:

sheet metal design, circuit milling paths

3D design:

Sheet metal design (I made the original object in 3D and then used the 'sheet metal' function to flatten it and edit in 2D), 3D printed lid

additive fabrication:

3D printing

subtractive fabrication:

laser cutting the metal and milling the pcb

electronics design:

the circuit system. Even though it didn't come together in integration I did design and get boards working

electronics production:

this one was a yikes. I had to redo the boards 7 times and by the time they were working I didn't have time for much else.

Microcontroller Interfacing and Programming:

the nRF240L01 radio. They talk to each other about the water level sensing. I programmed it in an Arduino environment

system integration and packaging:

I actually have the packaging. But I didn't nail integration so it is kind of a moot point unfortunately.

Other things I made:

Breadboard Arduino design. Not apart of the course and I recognize it was specifically not recommended to make. But I wanted to display something working and I thought that would make a live demo possible


what tasks have been completed, and what tasks remain?

Integration remains. All the individual components got done, even if they weren't the highest quality/best design. Integration and then improving on the base design I have currently.

what has worked? what hasn't?

Working: the the individual components. Not working: Integration.

what questions need to be resolved?

The radios seem to not 'refresh' or clear the buffer, I need to figure out what is up with that because I thought radios were constantly looking for a new input. They communicate reliably the first time I run the program but then I have to completely restart teh program to 'refresh.' That is the main question. Everything else I know what needs to get done, I just didn't have the time.

what have you learned?

I have learned SO SO MUCH in this class. It's kind of awesome to think about how impressive and daunting the idea of milling your own circuits was in the beginning of the year. And now I don't think twice and am confident in my ability to do that (when I'm taking my time). I had experience with circuit design and soldering but tiny component was something new. The networking and communications aspect is also really eye opening. I loved casting and molding; it's not something I had thought much about before because I always thought that if I need to build something I'd 3D print it and if I need to remove something I'd cut or mill it. Also, project management is something I've learned a lot about. I guess this is more of a 'soft skill.' Working smarter, not harder is important. Also, I think I say this elsewhere but the circle work theory is game changing. I traditionally want to work on something until it's amazing, but then that leaves behind other components I might need to work on.