Конец: The Final Blog Post

For our final project, we wanted to work with the Child Study Center. One of the problems they had was the issue of the kids (2-5 year olds) being unable to reach the top shelf of their cubby. The average 5 year old is about 3 feet tall, whereas the entire cubby is about 5 feet tall. When they wanted to reach something in the top shelf many of the kids stepped onto the middle shelf – not very safe. We came up with the idea of creating a stool that could easily slide in and out – we ended up using drawer slides to accomplish this. There also needed to be some form of a feedback and control system built into place as a way to remind the kids that they needed to push the cubby buddy back in. In our case we eventually decided on using a button as the sensor, while could then prompt a reaction in LEDs. The LEDs would be placed across the top of the cubby and under a sign in the back of the cubby that reminds the kids what they need to do.

Measurements and original concept design

WEEK 1 & 2:
We spent most of week one and week two brainstorming about how this cubby would work and what sort of materials we would need to create. We also scheduled a visit to the CSC to take some measurements and observe the kids at their cubbies. After presenting our idea to Becky she encourage us to make our project 'kickable,' as children are a little more top heavy, being able to kick the Cubby Buddy back into place is actually safer.

 WEEK 3:
We spent week three creating a cardboard prototype of our cubby/Cubby Buddy. Taking the measurements we took at the CSC, we were able to create SolidWorks parts that replicated what we wanted. After lining everything up properly, we were able to determine how much wood we would actually need for our project. We did some more brainstorming and came up with a final list of the things we would need to buy and submitted those to Amy. In addition, we typed up a Arduino code that would give us our desired blinking affect and put together a working circuit. (For a video of the working code, please scroll down to the end of the blog post.) We also took this week as an opportunity to practice our soldering skills.

WEEK 4:
Our wood arrived this week, so we were able to begin assembling the real thing. Unfortunately when Home Depot cut our wood into three pieces for us, they cut out the wrong sizes. We had to take a bit of time to recalculate our desired dimensions before we were able to begin cutting. Once we had the correct measurements, we went over to the machine shop to begin sawing. Special thanks to Larry who taught us how to use a table saw!

Once we had our pieces cut out we were able to begin the assembly process. We started with attaching the drawer slides. This was the hardest part of the project. Once we had the drawer slides screwed in, not an entirely painless process, we were easily able to attach the rest of the boards together. The only bump we ran into was that we had attached the top of the cubby buddy on first without attaching the L brackets (sturdiness and extra safety). We forgot to take into consideration that the drill would not be able to get into where the screw needed to be drilled in. We had to unscrew the top to get the L brackets in which was a bit of a back track. This was a good lesson in thinking ahead a bit more during the assembly process.

WEEK 5:
Our next step was creating the sensor and feedback portion of the project. We soldered two long wires onto the legs of the button and placed in the back of the cubby facing the cubby buddy. When the cubby buddy is pushed in, the button will be pushed and nothing should happen. If the cubby buddy is out, the button will no longer be pushed and should cause the LEDs to start blinking.

After putting the button in place, we then had to drill in holes for the wires to run through so they could connect to the top of the cubby, where we wanted to place to the Arduino. This was another example of things we should've thought out a little bit more. We didn't think about the wires when we were originally putting together our cubby, which made things a little bit more annoying. The drill didn't really fit into the corner where we wanted to place the hole so it took us some maneuvering to drill the hole. If we had thought of this earlier and drilled in the holes pre-assembly it would have made things a lot easier.

For the LEDs, we wanted to have two series of blinking lights. One would be a strand of lights that ran across the top of the cubby. The second would light up a sign that reminds that the need to kick the cubby buddy back into place. Vivian was able to create the string of LEDs by soldering LEDs in parallel onto a pair of wires. We glued the sign & a string of LEDs to the back of the middle shelf and taped one of the strings of LEDs across the top. We ran the appropriate wires to our bread board and double checked to see that everything work.

Once, we had all our components in desired place with everything working, we then began to solder the wires onto a permanent circuit board. This was relatively painless, although some of the legs of the wires kept snapping off. Once we had our wires all soldered together. We decided to fashion a wooden box to place the Arduino and circuit in. This would make the product a little more aesthetically pleasing and hopefully less exciting to the kids, so they won't be tempted to play with it. We made a little cover for the craziest part which was the where all the wires connected on the circuit itself. As a final touch, we covered the wires that ran along the corner of the cubby with black electrical tape.

For addition support, we also needed to creat feet on the front of the cubby. Since the CSC cubbies are built such that there is a bottom to the cubby, the cubby button does not touch the floor when pulled out. When weight is placed on top of the cubby buddy, the weight is being solely held up by the drawer slides, causing them to bend. This is not very safe and safety is a priority with this project. We created a U shaped piece of wood and attached a sheet of Delrin plastic onto the bottom because the flooring at the CSC is carpet. The plastic made it so that the Cubby Buddy will be able to easily slide in and out.

As a final, final touch to our project we sanded down all the sides of the Cubby/Cubby Buddy because we wanted to make sure that our product would be safe for any kid or adult that came into contact with it.

Our final product:

Reflections:
One of the major flaws in our product is the placement of the drawer slides. Instead of placing them towards the bottom of the cubby buddy, we should instead place them towards the top. This should create a more stable final product. Further, for the sake of aesthetics, I would want to see if could find some way to make the wires less visible – in particular, the LEDs that went across the front of the cubby. In the similar vein of thought, I would have loved for the opportunity to paint the cubby/Cubby Buddy, but given the time and monetary restraints, this was a possibility for this project.

In addition, when building the cubby/Cubby Buddy, we ran into a few obstacles when we failed to completely think through the order we needed to assemble the parts. This is only natural as this is our first version and we were still brainstorming throughout the assembly process, however, we would want to avoid this during further versions.

The total cost of our cubby buddy came to about $34. This isn't terribly expensive, but when the CSC has 37 cubbies, the price does appear a little steep. If we were given more time and did a little more research, we should be able to easily bring down this cost to something a little more affordable.

Overall, I think our final product is a really good representation of what we had in mind when we wanted to design a product that could help the kids at the CSC. I'm pretty happy with what my group was able to create in the last few weeks of the semester. This simple and easy-to-use product, given more iterations, can become a very safe and viable option for kids.

Video of basic working code:

Video of working product: