Monday, November 24, 2014

Meeting 11/24

Today the group met to discuss where the project stands.  The parts for 3-D printing were sent in last week via email to be approved and printed.  The laser cutting for our base board will be sent in today.  The board will be an 11" x 11" piece of .11" thick hard board with the white gloss.  Below is an image of our board in solidworks.
An image of our Megablock cab will be uploaded at a later time. Also, we were able to acquire a pre-soldered  motor shield last week.

We plan to begin writing code this week and to meet again next Monday.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

3D Parts

Started designing potential 3D parts to make with the 3D printer



The first part will hold the boom and be attached to a servo motor from below


 The second part will hold the dc motor that spins the reel in place on our mount


 The last part is the reel that the string will be kept on so it doesn't get caught on itself

Monday, November 10, 2014

Week One Progress

The group met again to discuss possible design ideas for the crane.  Designs were narrowed down to two different styles seen in the pictures below:
Design 1




and Design 2




After much discussion, a design similar to Design 2 was chosen and hand drawn.

Next, the group discussed the materials needed to create the crane.
  • It was decided the boom would be created with a wooden dowel and eye-hooks.
  • A mount for the boom would be designed in Solidworks and 3D printed.  
    • Motor mounts for the two motors necessary to swing the crane and raise the weight would also be created in Solidworks and 3D printed.  
  • The base of the crane would be made of plywood and the team name would be laser cut inside of it.  
  • The cab of the crane would be created from legos.
The boom would have a 180 degree range of motion.


Group members will reconvene later in the week to compare designs for the motor mounts.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Initial Idea

Welcome to Team Insane Crane.  In the above picture, listed from left to right are Team Members Billy Burns, Lucas Morse, and Jon Adams.

The premise of this project is to use a combination of Arduino and Solidworks to create a crane that will lift a small weight, swivel around an axis, and lower the weight again.

Below are links to some projects that we used as inspiration for our crane idea:
  • http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=275496.0
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv6iihsMLMo&noredirect=1
  • http://duino4projects.com/build-a-big-crane-game-using-arduino/