Content for Week 1…

I made a neuron vinyl cutout also!! To do this I searched for sillhouette images of neurons and downloaded the image. I then imported it to Adobe Illustrator where I did outline as sillhouette such that I can modify parameters like the line thickness. This was important since I was miniaturizing the neuron sticker, I needed to make the lines thicker to print properly. Then uploading a png to the mods software was super user friendly. I gave a lot of my friends stickers!

I chose to use this week to document my circuit and how I talk to my arduino :-)

I used the simulation to learn how to add a button to my circuit. Here when the button press is detected by the arduino turns on the LED pin. In my case, the button should open the solenoid for a fixed amount of time determined by the code onboard the arduino uno. I already have a pin sending to signal pin of relay that opens solenoid, so instead of changing LED_PIN i will change the SOLENOID_PIN when the button is pressed.

I first though about printing a snowglobe, but when text-to-cad failed to make a suitable object I moved on. I considered a microscope, a mechanical bic pencil, a bird whistle, and a lock-and-key. I searched for avialable cad files and happened upon this cool link of inspiration for printing a combination lock. If printed in one piece, I would say this is an object that cannot be made subtractively. However, this was printed piece by piece sorry!

This week I followed this tutorial

We made our own component for the raspberry pi pico W in the tutorial, so I tried doing the same for my driver, but it wouldn’t render in library for import.

Getting somewhere ..

I learned from Marcello and Anthony about how to wire a driver and stepper motor to control my linear actuator. However, I had trouble finding a driver component - and the new part that I added to the library would not show properly for import into schematic.

This circuit should control linear actuator, servo motor, and 2 capacitance sensors.

The mill tools I used were in okay shape which resulting in an okay board. I needed to do a lot of scraping to clean my board.

I soldered a xiao rp2040, a driver, pins for capacitance sensing, a linear actuator, and a servo motor.

Parameters:

• wire thickness: 16 mil
• clearance: 16 mil
• board perim clearane: 40 mil mil = 0.1 inch

Components:

This week I wanted to replace a belt buckle that I hate.

Are the supports necessary?

This week I wanted to add a temperature sensor to my mouse behavior rig. I expected that we would have a traditional thermistor in lab, but instead we just have a one-wire thermistor thing (DS18B20 TO-92). Datasheet here. The component seems to have been designed in Dallas (by dallas semiconductor) which is where I am from!

I connected the correct pins to ground, power and digital for data. I added a 4.7kOhm resistor between data and power pins. I uploaded this code to my arduino:

If it lands on me c’est la vie

This week I made a simple bench with press-fit and wedge joints.

I prepared the CAD and Anthony walked me through the generation of g-code. It was important to add tabs to prevent the full release of parts from the board when CNC is operating, the tool rotates up to 15,000 rpm which can really send things flying!

Here is the shopbot cnc:

To prepare for CNC we attach to OSB to the table with a nail gun and orient the xyz of the machine after tool positioning. To remove the wood after the job completes, we use a crow bar to dislodge large pieces and an oscillating drill bit to break tabs. There’s also lots of saw dust to vaccuum.