Work Night 12.6.18

Work Night

Date: 12.6.18
Location: Logan HS
Time: 4:30-7:00 PM
Students: Caitlin, Avery, Tanner, Seth, Thomas and Thaying
Goal: Wire in the electrical on the limb tester and energize it to see if the artificial limb moves the way we want it to.

It was a very successful work night! We did our first test of the artificial limb tester and after a few wiring issues, everything ran smoothly. Our neutral wire was not connected properly to the capacitor circuit that drives the motor.

The tester still needs to be modified to allow for more of a heel strike. Most of the welds were tacked in to allow us to move components around if needed. Mr. Pitz and his welding students have helped in the fabrication of the tester. We will need to move the hip mounting point out 3/4" so it is inline with the motor mount and cam. We also need to design a trip mechanism that will stop the forward motion of the leg and allow for a more natural movement into the heel strike. The frame of the tester may also need to be reinforced by the hip joint to prevent deflection under load.

A safety light was wired in for the test and will turn on when the unit is running. Some disappointment here as it is a solid LED yellow light and not a blinking light.

Steady progress from our software team. They have programmed and designed a circuit that will monitor battery voltage levels and output them to a computer screen. We now need to program that interface so it is visible on a cellphone App. MIT's App Inventor looks promising right now.

Caitlin has finished the Sustainability training is is preparing to take the test for it which is covered by the Lemelson-MIT grant.

Our goal next week will be to clean up the wiring, design a generator base that is 3d printed and work more on the software end.

Austin wired in a circuit that will sample battery voltage ever second and then display it.

This is a simple version of the battery display circuit.

Austin testing his program and circuit.

Thomas and Tanner working on electrical for the limb tester.

Seth getting ready to test the limb tester. 

Voltage changes being displayed in Austin's program from the battery level circuit.

Thomas and Tanner working on wiring the limb tester before we energize it.