Electrical Circuitry Finalized

Today, all of the electrical components were soldered together, fully completing the electrical component of this project. The ribs that will support the internal mechanisms in the dynamo are currently in the process of being 3D printed. Work was also made towards making a new motor to gear adapter, as a new 6V high-speed motor was purchased in order to produce more electricity.

Gear Chain

Yesterday, our team redesigned our gear chain, making it so for every rotation of the bicycle tire, the motor should rotate at about 15,000 rpm, traveling at 5mph. This should produce the electricity output that we are looking for. In addition, we also have finalized our circuitry and we are working on constructing these. Finally, we have decided to three 3d print the majority of our casing as it will be cheaper in the long run.

Week 5 Lab

Today we divided up the duties for the rest of week five. Theo will be working on ordering gear shafts for the mechanical part of the dynamo, as well as doing some R&D into the best way to have our dynamo make contact with the bicycle tire. Mathieu is working on finalizing the designs for our dynamo internal framework. All the items that need to be 3D printed to create a compact package for the gear train and motor to fit inside. These items will be sent off to be printed as soon as possible. I went after class today to make final purchases of PC board and a 6V motor from Radio Shack in center city, and I will be working on putting all of the electrical components together this week.

Pre Week 5 Lab

Goals for this weeks lab is to finalize the layout for the circuitry, begin soldering everything into place, have a solid starting point for the CADD drawings, make sure our parts are integrating with each other so far, and assign tasks for the rest of the week.

Machined Part

The machined part to connect the motor/generator to the gear has been finished.

Motor to Gear Attachment

This week, a small part allowing the circular shaft of our motor to connect to the square holes of our gears, was machined. This part is pivotal in our design, as if it does not function properly, the dynamo will not work. The design challenges of this part include its small dimensions. The piece is less than 3mm by 3mm by 10mm. A hole that just fits the motor axle also has to be drilled into the part. The part is scheduled to be finished tomorrow, and once picked up, will be attached to the motor with either hot glue, solder, or epoxy.

Charging the Caps

After setting up the electrical circuitry, our group was able to verify that the electrical systems were charging when the motor was turned. Once we have greater mechanical advantage to turn the motor faster, we should be able to generate enough electricity to output 5 volts.

Week 4 Lab

Today in lab, we were able to successfully set up the circuitry necessary for the project. We were also able to verify that the motor we will be incorporating into our dynamo is able to generate electricity. Our gears, which also arrived through shipping, were measured and incorporated into our initial designs. A metal component is in the process of being machined to connect the gears with the motor. An update on the machined part will come later in the week.

Modeling

For our final product, we may do some math based modeling to determine the efficiency of our dynamo and then compare it to other dynamos on the market.

Plan for week 4 lab

The goal of week 4 lab is to begin constructing test circuits, identify where all other needed parts will be purchased (if necessary), and to begin the CADD drawings of our 3D printed containers.

Prelab Week 4

Week 4 is almost upon us and our halfway point through the term and the project are almost here as well. We will have to work efficiently in order to complete the project to the fullest of our abilities.

Shipment Received!

The gears we ordered to create our dynamo have just arrived! We nearly have all of our pieces!

Testing

The goal of this project is to generate enough electricity from our dynamo to be able to charge a phone battery. This means, at an average riding speed, the dynamo must generate around 5 volts. In order to test this we will attach a volt-ohm meter to the output of our system while pedaling the bike at various speeds in order to determine the dynamos voltage outputs. All this data will be recorded and graphs may be posted in the future of the dynamos capabilities.

Materials

Most of the materials, especially those needed for the electrical components, have been gathered or are currently being shipped. Parallel board still needs to be purchased, and 3D printed parts still need to be made, however we are this much closer to being able to start the project.

CADD Modeling

By the end of the project, we should have full CADD modeling for the components that will be posted here on the blog.

Pre Week 3

This upcoming week we will be focusing on ordering all the required parts for the project, getting a finalized cost estimate to this point, and doing any and all paperwork including working drawings for the project. Fusion 360 projects have also been submitted so funding should be coming in soon.

Shareability

We are currently updating the sharing capabilities on our blog. We have managed to work with AddToAny to incorporate a large number of sharing links into every post on our page. Soon we would like to have a GitHub button incorporated as well.

Grades

Grades for the design proposal and blog have been posted. Although they were not necessarily ideal, we will continue to strive for excellence throughout the rest of the project.

Parts and Budget

The hunt for parts is still underway. We are attempting to keep the cost of the project to a minimum and pull parts from wherever we can get them. An updated cost of project will be posted as a running tally as the timeline progresses.

Lab 2 Week 2

Lab went well. Professor Knight approved our project design and we have a green light to begin completing working drawings and acquiring materials. We have a list of electrical components compiled along with pricing and sellers. We are still looking into gears. Theo will be contacting sellers about those soon. Mathieu also really dove into the working drawings on CAD during class.

Project Proposal Submission

The team worked really hard finalizing our plans for this project into a concrete idea. It all really started coming together this past Monday, culminating in our finished design proposal. We went further with making design decisions than we initially planned, but that should only help us down the road. Now all there is to do is get it all approved and do the rest of the project!

Week 1

During this first week, our group was formed and we decided upon our topic. We assigned roles to each member to better assist in completing the project in an efficient manner. Finally, deliverables that we completed include the setup of this blog and the completion of the Design Proposal.