Making Things Class Refines Product Designs

In this week's class, the teams in our class conducted a peer review of each others' designs. Our team reviewed Team 2’s design. Their product (currently unnamed, although we suggested the name “Easy Keasy”) is a key ring holder that fits conveniently in your pocket and can perform functions such as opening bottles. We provided this team with a number of suggestions for improving their design. Our team was critiqued by Team 7. The product we are is a smartphone acoustic amplifier called "Boost." We are currently working on our second design, and so far, it has been very well received. The feedback provided by Team 7 helped us refine our design, which we plan on prototyping tonight. We still need to perfect the weight distribution, the volume, and the size, but are making great progress.

Written by Sadie Tepper

Find out more about what our class has been doing over the last few weeks.

Making Things Class Designs Objects

This week the Making Things Class worked on the designs for our objects! We just recently changed our concept and have been moving very quickly since then. We decided to create a door stop that doesn't have to be put on the floor. We came up with two different designs and are actively trying to flesh them both out. We made rough CAD sketches of each design using AutoDesk Inventor and printed an initial prototype of each in the MakerLab. We now are evaluating and testing these two prototypes. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we are able to create improved versions of our prototypes and get them ready for market! The initial design for our door stop as well as the other designs by our classmates are shown below:

Written by Kendall Cox

Making Things Class Finalizes Concepts

During last week's class, we analyzed our product's concept (customizable clip-on dip bowl) test data to ascertain consumer interest in our product, willingness to pay, and potential questions and concerns. In general, consumer feedback for our concept (as well as the concepts our of classmates in general) seemed quite positive. We utilized this feedback to refine our concept by adding a few more features to our products. It is really exciting to watch our ideas transform into a physical, usable product right before our eyes. We are all looking forward to this week when we will have initial 3D models of our product ideas created via 3D design software such as Autodesk Fusion 360. Stay tuned!

Getting started with Arduinos

An Arduino is a micro-controller board, which has been used for thousands of projects. An arduino can be powered up by simply connecting it to the computer via USB cable or using AC/DC adapter or using battery. The videos below have been compiled by Ivan Setiawan . The Makerlab held an Arduino Workshop on Thursday, and you can check out our other events here.

An Arduino is a micro-controller board, which has been used for thousands of projects. An Arduino can be powered up by simply connecting it to the computer via USB cable, using an AC/DC adapter to plug it into a wall outlet, or using a battery.

A series of video tutorials is posted below that will introduce you to the Arduino and technical topics involved with using the Arduino and then guide you through some advanced projects using sensors and communication with a computer. The videos below have been compiled by Ivan Setiawan.

If you're looking for a more text-based tutorial, check out the the large collection of tutorials that Tronixstuff has to offer: http://tronixstuff.com/tutorials/. They range from beginner topics in Chapter 0 to advanced projects in Chapter 57.

Another great resource is Instructables. They have a specific Arduino channel in which you can browse all the projects that involve an Arduino: http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/category-technology/channel-arduino/. You can find projects ranging from introductory stuff (http://www.instructables.com/id/Beginner-Arduino/) to a remote-controlled lego car (http://www.instructables.com/id/Lego-Technic-Car-with-Arduino-XBee-Wireless-Contro/) and even remote controlled Toyota (http://www.instructables.com/id/Remote-control-car-My-real-car-RC-controlled-Ardui/).

The Makerlab held an Arduino Workshop on Thursday, and you can check out our other upcoming events and sign up.

Jeremy Blum's Tutorials for Arduino:

Beginner

Introduction to Arduino Programming: The following tutorial will help you get acquainted with the Arduino Uno and introduce the programming language used. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCxzA9_kg6s

Using Buttons, PWM (Pulse Width Modulation), and Functions: In this tutorial, we will use electrical components such as resistors, a breadboard, and LEDs. This video will show us how we can change the brightness of the LED by using PWM technique. PWM is a technique for controlling analog circuits with microprocessor's digital outputs. You will be able to rasie and lower the brightness of an LED by using the analog output. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LCCGFSMOr4

Electrical Engineering Concepts in Arduino: This tutorial will focus on the electrical concepts such as Ohm's Law, current limiting resistors, voltage dividers, analog inputs, and voltage regulators. Understanding the basic concepts is essential to create fun projects with Arduino. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abWCy_aOSwY

Using Analog Inputs: This video will teach you how to use and connect various sensors to the analog inputs in Arduino. This video will use an IR distance sensor as an input to detect the distance and movement of object. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js4TK0U848I

Motors and Transistors: This following video tutorial will teach you how to control the servo DC motors with the help of a NPN transistor and a PWM (pulse width modulation) signal. At the end of the video tutorial, the servo motor will rotate 20 degrees every second. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bHPKU4ybHY

Intermediate

Serial Communication and Processing: In this following tutorial video, we will focus on communicating with the computer via standard serial connection to send data from Arduino to the computer using processing . This video tutorial will teach you how background color in the computer can change if we turn the potentiometer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0pSfyXOXj8

I2C (I2 Celsius) and Processing: In this following tutorial video, we will use I2 Celsius temperature sensor to generate a room temperature display on the computer screen using processing and serial communication from the previous video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJX0BRUagCg

Using SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) Interfaces: The serial peripheral interface (SPI) bus is a synchronous serial data protocol used by microcontrollers for communicating with one or more devices. This method can also be used to communicate between two microcontrollers. In this following tutorial video, a potentiometer will be used to control the brightness of several LEDs altogether. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nO2SSExEnQ

Advanced

Wireless Communication in Arduino: In this following tutorial video, we will use a transceiver to create wireless serial communication. At the end of this tutorial video, turning a potentiometer in one Arduino can adjust the servo motor connected to another Arduino wirelessly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKVNmA8C6m8

Interrupts and Debouncing: Interrupts enables a program to run and react to asynchronous inputs from other inputs. In other words, interrupts can cause microprocessors to work on a different task, then go back to its initial task. This following video will show you how to use a hardware debounced button to activate an interrupt in the Arduino. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRJUdf5TTQQ

SD Cards and Datalogging: SD (secure digital) card is a memory card format used in portable devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and tablet computers. This following tutorial video will walk you through how to write and read to an SD card. Then, several sensors will be added periodically to create the datalogger. The logger will record sensor values to its SD card so that a computer program can visualize the data later in Microsoft Excel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v5A3j7Rrco

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Meet the Maker : Sergio Poo-Dalidet

Sergio Poo-Dalidet is a Phd student in Education and Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has a Master of Education at UIUC. His main interests are technologies on education and quality assurance systems in higher education. He is an avid maker and has been a frequent visitor and documented his latest project for us, where he repaired a caster for a chair at home. He is an honorary member of the lab. http://youtu.be/R-WXwe2OuNw

Find out what others are making at the Lab, and come make something.  The makerlab attracts majors from over 20 different units across campus, helping them "Learn, Make and Share".  Stay tuned to us on twitter or Facebook.

Making Things Class Tests Product Concepts

This week's class began with a Skype call with Kristen Turner, Marketing Director of Sculpteo. Kristen told us about different 3D printing business models. For example, some makers use Sculpteo as an online retailer for their products. She also showed an example of an app that allows users to create pottery and then print it though Sculpteo. This lecture was very cool and reinforced the idea that makers of 3D printed objects can easily sell them online. After the lecture, we broke into teams and worked on the questions that we wanted to ask potential users of our products. Most of the teams have their final ideas and are going to be taking the data they collected to refine their concepts based on the feedback received. We are looking forward to next week! Find out more about what we have been up to these last few weeks.

This post contributed by Team 7 or rather Team Enable in the Making Things class (Daniel, Brady, Kevin)