Progress Is Made!!

We met on Monday, 12/1 and discussed the state of our project.  At that point, we had submitted our part for laser cutting as well as our parts to be 3-D printing.

Jon had received an email prior to Thanksgiving Break telling him that the lasercut board was ready for pickup.

Lucas informed the group that the 3-D printed parts were also available for pickup.

At this point, with all parts ready, the group began planning a time to meet up to assemble the crane and also to discuss coding.  Lucas agreed to pick up the parts that were ready and the group agreed to meet on Thursday, 12/4 to begin assembly. 

In the meantime the group agreed to research code for the motors used in the crane operation.  Progress is great at this point, as once the crane is assembled and code is written we are finished!  We all agree we are at a good point in this project in terms of progress!

Pictures of the completed parts as well as the assembled crane to follow that meeting!

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.

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

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.

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/