Final Project Part 4

Building Physical Materials

Making of the mat and spinner!

First Steps:
Before cutting any delrin, Izzy first created test pieces to make sure all of the our attachments would fit together snugly. Once we knew what sizes to make our holes, we were ready to design our project.

Beautiful Test Piece

Peg for Test Piece

The Mat:
The base of the mat was made out of a plastic box that we cut the bottom off. Larry helped us cut the box to the proper size.

Uncut Box

Cut Box

 Our arduino, battery pack, and bread boards were mounted on those. To keep the fragile arduino safe from the weight of the children, we constructed a box out of delrin to house all of our components. We had small holes on the top part of the delrin box for the buttons to live so that they could be depressed by the children sitting on the mat. We also cut access holes over where the breadboards lie to make them more accessible in case the wires need to be adjusted. For additional easy access to the wires, we hinged the delrin box to the plastic box.

Top of Delrin Box Solidworks 

Side of Delrin Box Solidworks

Cutout Piece of Delrin (for the top of the box)

Hinges 

Complete Delrin Box

We then mounted the yoga mats with the top of the plastic bin. It helped to create a firmer base for the children to sit on. We hinged either side of the mats to the plastic bin to create easy access inside the mat. Izzy added Popsicle sticks on the inside portions of the mat to give it more weight.

Gluing mats to the plastic

Then we soldered all of our parts to sensors to longer wires so they would connect to the breadboard. After that, we wired the mat together. This proved to be complicated because the wires weren't long enough to stay in their spots when we lifted the delrin box. Wires kept coming out of where they were supposed to be and it was difficult to keep putting them back where they belong. We eventually got everything in the right places. We also needed to tape the buttons to the delrin box so that they would face the right way.

Side View of Wires 

Inside the flaps

The Spinner:

We wanted a spinner for the children so that they could have a visual reminder of where they were supposed to be on the mat. We decided against pegs on our spinner and instead let the spinner slow down due to air resistance because it simplified the design. We could add carpet or another type of material to the spinner if it still spins too fast. Pictures of each part of the spinner are featured below.

Spinner Arrow

Spinner

Side Support

Back Support

We cut Vinyl to make the colorful sections of the spinner.

Stencil for Vinyl Sections

FINISHED PRODUCT!!!!

Spinner in Action!

Beautiful

Spinner and Box, side by side.

Reflection:

It was wonderful to see the mat come together and start to look like a final product. We needed a lot of help from Larry to cut the box and put on the hinges and make sure they didn't interfere with the insides of the box. However,  I would make some changes if I did it again. I would have made the wires longer so that the delrin box could be opened all the way without pulling the wires out. I would also make the vinyl pieces on the spinner and the yoga mats the exact same color. In the end, though, I think the mat and spinner ended up looking great!