Group 3 Exploring Engineering Darin Gray July 8 th, 2011
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Max Reinisch Niccolo Lamanna Niccolo Valerio Marc Hermann
Darren Draper
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Before going to the building or computer first, our group
relied on drawings and sketches as a basis for our work As we
became more confident in our work, we applied it to the computer
simulator but constantly referred back to our principle sketches
After creating a successful circuit on the computer, we started
building and testing
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First Step: We began applying our knowledge of binary logic and
the uses of logic gates to solve for the output we wanted Trial and
Error
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Second Step: Apply Boolean Algebra to our logic gates and
create complex combinations of logic gates
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Third Step: Rough build plan sketch on paper to make the
circuit will flow
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Fourth Step Copy our paper sketches into Yenka to simulate the
circuit and find any errors Find any places in the circuit to make
either more simple or make small changes to in Yenka
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Begin constructing the circuit by hand and testing the circuit
If the circuit didnt work at all, or only worked in some cases, we
used the multi-meter to test the voltage in the circuit board to
find our errors
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Overall, this project relied heavily on the distribution of
jobs amongst group members with the short time we had and many
tasks to accomplish The success we had was because of our ability
to get things done together as a team and each contribute by
getting our separate jobs done
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Niccolo Lamanna and Valerio were most often involved in the
building of the circuit. Max Reinisch was most involved with the
design of the circuit. Marc Hermann helped Max with the design and
building of the alarm circuit. He also helped Darren with the
PowerPoint. Darren Draper created the website and PowerPoint. He
also took photos and shot video.
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Overall, we faced many challenges while doing this project from
design issues, to understanding and application. The first and one
of the biggest challenges was understanding how to wire the circuit
with the logic gates Turning one light on while tripping the prior
light off was a big challenge we had in our designs This challenge
was overcome and we found success after we applied the Boolean
Algebra introduced by Niranjan
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We also faced many problems with the translation of what we had
in our rough sketches to applying it to our actual circuit This
problem was not fully overcome by the end of day two of
design/building, and thus why our circuit doesnt fully work This
problem was mainly due to the different designs we had, and the
inability to find our small errors in wiring even though our
schematic design worked
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Instead of building the entire circuit as one big piece, we
tried to separate the sensors and then connect them at the end This
was another glaring error in our attack to wire the circuit As we
added more pieces to the circuit, either power wasnt getting all
the way through, or it was too confusing to try and rewire what we
already had on the circuit board One continuous obstacle we had was
short circuiting. The input and outputs of the switches would touch
and short-ciruit, thus not allowing our circuit to fully work We
solved this by attaching electrical tape to the three wires coming
out of the switches, and it greatly improved our design
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To start with, if we knew our true reason for failure, we would
have been able to fix it and find success in our circuit With that
said, we think our main reason for failure was the wiring Our plan
was complicated and when we tried to combine the different sensors
and alarm when wiring, many of the wires got mixed up and didnt
create a complete circuit For this, some of our circuit works, and
other parts are not complete
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We would improve the project by replacing long and messy wires
with short, clean ones This would make it more organized and easily
comprehendible so we could find our errors more easily If we made
this circuit again, we would draw a detailed design of the circuit
board and clearly label the wires and gates Our goal for this step
would be to be able to assemble the circuit with ease in little
time because our picture would be so clear Another path we would
take if we had more time, would be attempting to use the least
amount of gates to maintain simplicity
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First and foremost, we all learned that frustration is part of
engineering. Hopefully, next time, we can keep from becoming
irritated and just focus our efforts towards solving it. We learned
a lot about each other as people, how we work, and our strengths
and weaknesses This benefited us when dividing up labor and finding
the best person for each job We learned about the importance of the
step-by-step process needed before construction can even start
Planning is key to an engineers success and always relying on basic
sketches and designs will ensure that success We also learned the
importance of team work and division of labor Without this fact in
mind, we wouldnt have been able to finish as much as we did
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Now that we know each other better as people and engineers, we
are certain that if we work together again, we would have great
success If we would redo this project again, our team would work in
smaller teams like we did this time, but at first all work together
to come up with a clear and simple schematic design At times, our
frustration levels with designing the circuit overcame our ability
to focus on the central goal, thus why we would makes sure we
always stay focused and concentrated on the task