5)
A lot of the people that answered yes to this question explained that it would be more pratical, save time and it would be nice to have something new and up-to-date with techonology.
6)
A large amount of people said that they would be willing to pay between £0-£4, hardly anyone would have paid more. I think this is due to the economic state of the country at the moment. We are in a recession and money is scarce.
7)
I am not surprised by my results. I know that there are not many snooker clubs/hall in england. And not many people play snooker. Some clubs charge more than others.
8 )
In my graph it shows the same amount of people that belonged to a club owned there own personal snooker cue. The people that wasn’t a member didn’t. I would think that if you’re a member you play snooker regulary and because they werent a member they don’t play regulary and that’s probably the reason why they don’t own a snooker cue.
9)
Snooker is televised regularly. It is always on television and every year there is the world championship for snooker around january – febuary. There are also many other snooker competitions and the new chairman of snooker ‘ Barry Hearn’ is looking to give snooker players even more competitions thoughtout the year.
10)
Design Specification
- I am aiming to sell my product to snooker clubs, individual professionals and everyday snooker players.
- My product is designed to resolve the problem of inaccuracy and time.
- My product has to be small enough to fit onto the side of a snooker table. Therefore my product should be no more than 5 inches wide.
- The weight isn’t a factor of my product that needs to be specific but I wouldn’t want my product to be heavy as it is going to portable.
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My product will be robust and will withstand pressure put on it. E.g. If it was put in a bag full of other objects.
- My product will be run on one rectangular 9V battery. This will need to be changed when it runs out. I will allow for this in my casing
- My product is going to be a rectangular box. With rounded edges.
- My circuit will be powered by a 9V PP3 battery
- My main input device is a switch and I also have a reset switch
- My main Process devices are a 555 timer and a driver for my seven Segment LED displays
- My output devices are my seven segment displays and my LED and buzzer
- I am using a basic PCB
- For my packaging I’m going to use clear PVC. To make the packaging I’m going to use a vacuum former, this way I can get my packaging the right size and shape. My packaging will have a whole at the top so when it is sold it will be hung up. It will have a cardboard back explaining how to use and any safety guidelines needed
- My battery compartment will have a spring clip so that it can be easily accessible.
- I am going slot my PCB into to slots to keeps it secure inside my product
- The safety of my product is very important. It should have no sharp edges to harm yourself on and also should be kept tightly locked up that children cannot get to the circuit and electrocute themselves
- For my budget I would not be willing to spend more than £20
- My packaging with be made out of PVC. This is not recyclable but can be modified and changed into different things. Mt PCB cannot be recycled and neither can any of my components
- For my PCB I need to use a special machine for engraving my PCB. This machine creates the tracks for my components. I also have to use a vacuum former for my packaging. This melts the plastic and changes it into any mould that I make. I wouldn’t be producing this on a large as I am just making this product for my GCSE Electronics.
- My packaging will be made from PVC and will have all instructions and safety guidelines included in the packaging
- My product does not need any insulation or strain holes as it will not be put under any pressure or heat
- To make sure my product is working and is safe I will be looking at it and I will being using tests like, dropping it on the floor from various heights to evaluate the durability and crushing to see whether it can withstand pressure.
- I was given 6 months to design and make my product but we don’t have to stick to it.
Initial Ideas
My Bread Boarding
Breadboards or Protoboards are used to quickly develop a circuit without having to solder it together. This can be very useful because f you make any mistakes to can rectify them. The Protoboards contains holes in them; this is where you insert your components. They are held in tightly by small metal springs. The Protoboards purposely has a gap down the middle to allow for pic and 555 timers to be slotted in. The Protoboards have some rows and columns connected. I shall show this in a simple annotated diagram.
Initial Idea 8
This circuit contains a Genie C08 PIC Chip. PIC Stands for Programmable integrated Circuit. They are used to respond to and input and control and output. A PIC is basically a computer in chip; it can carry out so many commands given to it and can also be used to replace so many simple components because it is so technological. PIC are very useful and small components, they are used in many day-to-day appliances for example a car has around 40 PIC’s, a Microwave contains PIC Chips and also a DVD Player etc. PIC’s in industry are programmed in a special language called machine code or assembler code ( low level programming language), the advantage of this is that it is more efficient, it can run more rapidly and also more accurate. There is also a bad point about this special language this is that the language is very hard to learn and understand. For the less able you can use ‘High level programming languages’. This type of programming is common in school where they use PICAXE software, this software uses flow charts to make it easier to understand to the user, it reduces the need for keyboard skills and is a lot simpler. You can also you another language called ‘BASIC’ (beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) this is text based rather than using flow charts. Bigger more complicated programmes are normally made using BASIC because it can create more commands and is more powerful. The only bad thing about high level programming is that it uses more of the PIC’s memory and runs a lot slower then Machine Code.
There are many different types of PIC Chips the most common make is PICAXE they are made is several different sizes ranging from 8 pin – 40 pin. There are different types of packaging the PIC’s can come in but the most common is DIL (Dual in line packaging) this means that the PIC has two sets of legs coming out of the casing either side. You can also get different size PIC’s but all sizes use the same BASIC or Flow chart programming system. The more memory the PIC has then the more complex a programme can be downloaded onto it.
PICAXE-08M, PICAXE-14M and PICAXE-20M are just a few of the popular PIC’s available on the market. Notice before the ‘M’ there is a number, this number represents the amount of pins that PIC Chip has.
This is the Flowchart that I made on the PICAXE Software to control the PIC Chip in the above diagram.
Shape Meanings
The flowchart is the way of programming the chip. It is telling the chip:
1) Start
2) When Pin 2 is high it will turn on the buzzer and LED
3) They will stay on for 3 seconds
4) When pin 2 goes Low again the LED and buzzer will turn off
5) It will wait 5 seconds before it repeats the process again.
My Final Circuit
This is my Final circuit that I will be using in my product. It contains 3 seven-segment LED displays and 3 Drivers to go with them. The way my circuit work is that when SW3 is connected it will supply power to the circuit, then when SW1 is pushed the monostable will be triggered and also an LED and a buzzer will turn on at the same time as one more point is added onto the LED Displays. My counters go up to 999, in the snooker the maximum score is 147 so you won’t need the maximum 999. This is why I have included a reset switch (SW2). When this is pushed all numbers are cleared from the LED Displays and it counts from zero once more. Finally when SW3 is disconnected then there is no power supply to the circuit.
^^
Symbol for a Buzzer
Component Research
PCB
To make my PCB I am using the Circuit Wizard Software using this I am connecting my PCB components together via tracks.
I have chosen in circuit wizard not to assemble my components for me. This is because they can assemble them in the wrong order. It also does all of the tracks for me but adds fly wires into my work. I would rather not have many fly wires as I feel it is un-neat and could be avoided. Auto-routing also makes the board really busy and big and I want to keep mine to the minimum size, it adds diagonal tracks which I don’t want and puts all off the components very close together and makes them hard to solder. Sometimes it also leaves some computers out and doesn’t attach them all together.
This is the Auto-routed circuit. As you can see the green lines show the connections that still need to be done but the board is so busy there is no room for the tracks to go and these are thin tracks. There are many diagonal tracks that take up much more room than they need to and none of the components are in the right place i.e. my buzzer and LED are not parallel, which is what I want. Some of the tracks are under the components and this confuses me so I would prefer to use straight tracks that are on the board away from the components.
As I wasn’t going to auto-net my circuit I would have to put it together manually. The advantage of this is that I can put my components in the right place but the disadvantage is that is takes a long time.
- First I put out all of my components in the order I wanted. At first I put them to close together and I had no space to put in the tracks. I had to space them out more which made my PCB bigger.
- I first start by linking all of the small things like the resistors and buzzer and LED. I did this because it was easy to start with.
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I then moved to my attached everything else that needed to be attached and used fly wires for the components that weren’t attached due to no room for the tracks.
My Casing
There are several different processes that can be used to make product casing. These are:
- Vacuum Forming
- Blow Moulding
- Injection Moulding
- Laser Cutting
- Strip Heater
- 3D Printing
Vacuum Forming
Vacuum forming is where a sheet of single plastic is heated to its forming temperature, then it is stretched by a mould, the plastic is sucked onto the mould to help add any extra details to the plastics finish. Vacuum forming is used for many different shapes of packaging and is also used for other things for example a car dash board. Vacuum forming is normally used for just plastics and isn’t a very good way of making deep trays is used for shallow packaging. The most common form of plastic used in vacuum forming is thermo-plastic. This is used because it has a ‘memory’, this means when heated up again it will return to its former shape. Most of the moulds used in vacuum forming are made out of wood as this can withstand the heat of the plastic and also doesn’t stick the the plastic when it is melted. The moulds always have edges at an angle; this is so the mould can be removed easily after the plastic is shaped.
Blow and injection moulding
Blow moulding is the process used to make a big object made out of plastic that is hollow. i.e. A plastic Rubbish Bin. The most common plastic used is HDPE (High density polyethylene). The process for blow moulding is the same for injection moulding yet it produces different results. The way these processes work is that Plastic Granules are dropped into a pod that releases them onto a rotating thread. The plastic particles get heated whilst travelling down the thread so by the time they are at the other side they are liquidised. When the liquid plastic gets to the mould at the end of the thread compressed air is pumped into the mould which pushes out the HDPE to the edge of the mould which then gives the finished product with a hollow middle. Whereas injection moulding the liquid pours inside the shape and then is left to cool.
Laser Cutting
The laser cutter is designed to cut many different materials to an extremely accurate measure. This is very handy as not many people can cut accurately and straight easily. To use the laser cutter you need to feed it a picture than it will cut out on your material. To do this we use a CAD software which is called, ‘2D design’. This allows you to measure and draw a shape of your preference and then transfer it onto any material in the laser cutter. The laser cutter is very useful in big industrial businesses as it is so accurate you can cut thousands upon thousands of pieces all the same size. The laser cutter isn’t just used for cutting it can be used for other things such as engraving and boring. There are three main types of lasers used but the most common is the CO2 as it suits most of the laser cutters processes. The way the laser cutter works by aiming a high powered laser at the material. The material burns, melts or even vaporizes to make the define cut in the material. Depending on the material the laser cutter will have a specific work rate. This is to determine how fast and how powerful the laser is, this is done because if a laser is not powerful enough or not fast enough it might not cut through.
Strip Heater
A strip heater is one of the most popular ways of bending or shaping plastics such as acrylic. The way a strip heater works is that when it is turned on, a strip of wire heats up. Once heated it gives of enough heat the gradually warm the plastic until it becomes soft enough to bend in any direction. Once you bend your plastic into place you just hold it in the right position for up to 1-2mins and it will become rigid again and not move. The best part about using acrylic is that if you get it wrong the first time, you can re-heat you plastic and try again.
3D Printing
3D printing is a fairly new technology to come onto the market. The way it works is that you enter into the machine via your computer your design. To enter your design into the machine, you use a CAD software called,' Solid Works’. The machine then takes this image and starts to assemble it inside, by making layers upon layers till it forms the whole shape. 3D printers can make a wide range of small designs out of different materials. It has only recently been brought onto the market for small or medium size businesses.
Casing Idea 1
For my first casing idea I will be using Solid works 2009.
Casing Idea 2
For this Casing Idea I am going to use 2D Design.
Final Idea
For my final casing idea im going to use my 2D design casing idea. I am using this one because I feel it is the easy and less complicated for me to make. I will be using laser cutting and strip heating. My case has just 4 panels that need to be glued. The side panels and end panels will be joined together. To join them together I have several different options.
I could use finger joints, this is where the two sides interlock and is a very strong joint but this joint won’t be suitable for my product as I want my product to have rounded edges. Therefore I will be using butt joints, this is where both side are pushed against each other a glued. To glue my casing I will araldite rather than tensol glue this is because araldite is an epoxy resin hardener. It is made up of two compounds that connect when touched therefore when the two sides meet, the glue will connected and harden which will keep the sides in place, whereas tensol eats into the acrylic to glue the pieces together so if I accidently got any on a part of my product that is meant to be nice, there is no way of cleaning or getting rid of the tensol glue. I could also use superglue but for butt joints superglue isn’t appropriate because it is brittle, this would not suit my casing as it needs to be durable.
For the bottom of my casing I am going to strip heat my side so that the edges curl around the other panels. To hold it on I will be using a pillar drill and drilling 5 mm holes into the four corners of the bottom and will put bolts through and hold it on like that.
The top of my casing will be cut using the laser cutter. I will import my file to the laser cutter. It will then cut out my design on acrylic. For my LED displays I have decided to have see-through acrylic so that the LED shines through. This means that instead of cutting out holes I will be engraving the lines on the top. The switches and LED’s will still stay the same. The hole for my switch is the same; the switch I will be using is a DPST switch. It will come though the top and show. I have added an extra 20mm on both ends of my top because this will allow me to strip heat then and bend the edges round. This way it will keep my lid on my box and make it accessible to the battery and you can just life the lid off.
Product Diary
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Ordering my components
These are all the components I’m using for my final circuit.
- Inputting my components into my PCB.
To start with I just put all my components in my circuit board making sure the components with polarity were the right way round. The components that are coming through my casing are on wires to allow me more room to move them around and so it is easier to fit them into the casing. This took me 10 mins because I had to find the components myself.
- Soldering in my components
I found it very difficult to solder my components because I have bad-eyesight and I struggled a bit. But I managed to do it and all my components were firmly in. I bridged over onto other tracks a few times by I got the soldier sucker and cleared it up. All in all soldering my PCB took me a whole lunch time and a lesson. This was roughly one hour and 30 minutes.
- All of my components are now soldiered in.
These are all off my components soldered in. As you may observe in my final circuit design there wasn’t a capacitor but after I soldered all of my components in, the circuit wasn’t working. The monostable wasn’t working as expected and the counters were not counting properly. This is discovered was due to the buzzer that was used, was causing interference to the counting ciuit. The simple addition of a capacitor across the buzzer cured this problem.
- Starting my Casing.
I need to upload my casing design for 2D design to the laser cutter. I made sure that I kept my design to the minimum size and as close to the edge of the material as possible. This saves material.
6) Laser cut my material
The laser cutter will cut my material to very accurate measurements and will give a smooth edge which is what I need for my butt joints. The laser cut my material in no time, it took 3 minutes.
7) Identify the sides
I layed out all of my sides that were cut out and identified the two ends, two sides and the top and bottom.
8) Lining up my sides to make sure they fit.
I lined up my sides and realised that I had the wrong measurements, so I had to adjust my measurements and repeats steps 5 to 8.
9) Strip Heating preparation
Using a ruler I had to measure the amount of plastic that I wanted to strip heat and then mark it with a board pen, that way when I put it on the strip heater I will be able to accurately bend my plastic.
10) Strip heating
Put my plastic into the strip heater and bend my plastic around the edges of the side. I did wrong it wrong more than once but I was using acrylic so it allowed me to reheat the plastic and start again. I left the plastic on the strip heater for about 15 mins then I bent it round the sides and held it there for 2 mins so that it would become hard again. I had to bend four sides. I had to make sure that my tie was tucked in otherwise if I lent down to look at my plastic it might have burnt and even caught fire.
11) Drilling preparation
After my strip heating was complete I need to line up the pieces off plastic and make my holes for the drill with a pen, this way I can accurately fit the two pieces of plastic together.
12) Drilling my holes
At first to drill my holes I used a hand drill but then it ran out of battery and there were no spare batteries because nobody had put them on charge so I had to switch to a pillar drill. I preferred the hand drill because it was easier and more practical. Drilling my holes took me three lessons which is about two hours because I had to mark my holes, then drill them, then switch drills. When I was drilling I had to have the guard down and goggles on to stop any unwanted bits of material flying into my eyes. I had to have an apron on and my tie tucked in so that nothing could get caught whilst the drill was working.
13) Making Bolts
I had to find some bolts and nuts that would be the right size for my product but I couldn’t, this meant I had to make my own. I got big bolts and cut it down using a hacksaw then using a hand file I file the edges to make them tapered so my nut would fit on easily. This took me 5 mins max.
14) Painting
To make the LED displays shining through affect a lot better I decided to spray the lid so that it was a dark colour, this would give a good background so that it would be easier to see the LED displays shine through. I had to masking tape the parts of the lid I didn’t want to be spray painted. This took me less than a minute. During this I had to wear an apron so my clothes didn’t get paint on them and a mask because the spray paint creates toxic fumes. I then found that spraying the lid wasn’t the best option because it left holes where you could see through and also it was completely the wrong colour because the Acrylic was yellow and the spray paint was black so it came out dark green. So I decided to stick foam to it. I cut out the right shape for the lid and then stuck it on.
15) Find a way to secure PCB
To secure my PCB I tried to make a tower of small foam blocks to rest underneath the PCB. This worked to some extent but the PCB still wasn’t good enough, it was to far away from the lid so the LED displays weren’t shining through properly. So I had to get pieces of MDF the right size and use a band saw to cut them into little squares then I put the little squares in between the casing lid and the PCB. This held them to the right height and kept the LED close to the top. To make the foam blocks I was in several breaks and lunch times to get it done and I manage to make the wooden blocks on the deadline day in a whole lesson. This was the longest part of my casing.
16) Finishing touches
I attached the battery and put that under the PCB. I put my push-to-make switches through the casing as well as my LED and my turning on and off switch. This took me around 10 mins.
Product Assembly
After hours and hours of hard work I am very relieved to say that my product works but my electronic snooker scoreboard hasn’t met all of the specification and aim points. It has met 4 out of 6 aims and also 12 out of a possible 24 design specification points. I have performed well on my points about my PCB but I think I failed most of my points due to either not sticking to the specification or not full-filling it.
I first made the PCB and soldered all of my components on and then I cut out my casing and strip heated it. Then measured all the drill holes I needed and drilled them. I then cut the bolts to the right size and slotted them in the drilled holes. This held my casing together. Then I put all my switches and LED in place in my lid. Then I made my wooden blocks attached them to the board using superglue and then put my casing lid on. This is how my product was assembled.
I had many problems with my product. My first problem occurred when I had to drill my pilot holes in my PCB so that I could put my components in, I found it really hard to see where about I had to put the drill bit and had to take my time and do it very slowly, furthermore I had problems soldering my components in because it was very hard to see and I seem to have very shaky hands. I kept bridging but I managed to get that sorted using the solder sucker, my LED and switches had to go through the casing lid so I had to attach them to wires the to make longer so they would reach but I kept moving them to put them in place and the wire kept on snapping. I then had the problem of my casing I made it to the wrong side and I had to cut it out again. This was a waste of material. After this I had to strip heat my casing sides and I found this very difficult because the sides were quite small and had to be done accurately, but I could hold the plastic because it was too hot. I had to use a metal ruler to hold the plastic down whilst it bent over the sides. I had a problem of then mounting my circuit board. I found this the hardest solution to fix. I had no clips on the side of my casing and I couldn’t pin the board down to the bottom because the LED displays had to shine through the top. I solve this by the wooden blocks. My product is intended to be used in a snooker hall, a snooker hall is generally a very quiet place because this helps with concentration. The buzzer in my product was extremely loud and this would put people off during their snooker, to fix this I have put masking tape over it so that it reduces the sound down. My LED Displays were quite low down and I couldn’t get them close enough to the board because all of the other wires were in the way, to solve this I used the LED display holders and stacked them up so it made them taller. The downfall of this is that it isn’t very stable and sometimes the LED displays fall out.
If I had a chance to do it again I would certainly redo my casing, purely for the fact that it is very bulky and doesn’t look as nice as I wanted it to. I had a deadline to meet so I had to make my casing quicker then I would have liked to.
I think if I had a chance to do it again I would change certain things. Firstly for my PCB I would make it with less fly wires and no buzzer because the buzzer is very loud, a lot louder than I anticipated. For my casing I would change my whole design completely. I think I would make a design on sold works and then use the 3D printer to produce it. It would look a lot nicer and more professional.
I think that my intended buyers would be pleased with the outcome of my product in terms of the PCB and circuit side of things but when it came to my casing I think they wouldn’t be impressed. This is because it isn’t very nice and it is a lot bigger then I put in my specification, this makes it quite bulky and takes up more space.
Class Questionnaire
1) Considering the time I was given, do you think that I have made a good product?
2) Would you buy my product if you saw it on the market?
3) How would you rate my soldering neatness out of ten (Ten being exceptionally neat)?
4) If you was to give me any advice about how to do things differently what would you say?
5) Is there anything you would like to see me improve on my product?
6) Do you think my casing looks nice and presentable?
7) Do you think my product was challenging in terms of my ability?
8) If I improved my product could you see it being sold in the market in 5 years?
9) Do you think my product is safe for children under the age of 5?
10) Do you think I could have put any more effort into my work?
These are the answers from my class mate Harry Ashenden:
- Yes I think the product is well finished and works well.
- No, but if I played snooker I think it would be a valuable thing to have.
- 8
- Manage your time better.
- The aesthetics
- I think the casing could have been better made with more time spent into it.
- Yes definitely.
- Yes I could
- No, because there are a few sharp bits.
- Yes, on your casing.
Mass Production
If my product was going to be mass produced there would vast changes needed, both to materials and production methods.
My casing is made out of acrylic and this is recyclable. This is very good as it helps the environment. If my acrylic is recycled, then that will save us using up oil which is a fossil fuel to make more plastic. Fossil fuels are not going to last forever and if we keep wasting plastic then it is wasting these fuels. In my production I cut my acrylic to the wrong size but this isn’t an issue as I put I in the recycling bin so it can be used again for something else. To be even more environmentally friendly I could make my casing smaller because it is pretty big and bulky to carry around. If it was smaller it would be more green and easier to carry also if my product was smaller I wouldn’t have to use so much energy to cut it would then, help global warming. My PCB is the only non-recyclable material in my product.
If my product was to go into mass production I think the method of making it would have to change. To start with to make the PCB it would have to be a lot smaller as it isn’t recyclable and the components could be soldered with less solder via a machine. This saves more resources. Secondly the casing would have to be a lot smaller and lighter and could be made out a material that doesn’t use a fossil fuel for to be made. The method that would be better for mass production would be blow moulding. This gives the same affect that I have created in my product but can do more than one at once; it is also a lot more pretty and environmentally friendly. Blow moulding would make a hollow case of the right size and could even improve the way my PCB is held into place. To sell my product to an industry in my advertising I would right about all of the pro’s and try not to mention any cons. I would show them costs and predicted net profit if there was any. I would show them the producing cost and then the price they could sell the product at to make a profit. It would be more cost effective if it was made in a country that has shipping access to nearly all the world and it would be more cost effective to have it made in a factory by machines rather than people because machines can make more than one at once.
Evaluation
The PCB is the best part of my product that I did. I would say I have soldered well and that it is neat. My product works and the way I have cased it isn’t the best but it will do. Also one of the things I have done well is make it work because at first it wasn’t working so I had to add and change things and now it is working.
There are many things that went wrong and if I had the chance I would do them differently. The worst thing was the casing. My casing is not straight it isn’t small, my butt joints don’t meet and the lid isn’t securely on. If I had the chance to make my casing again, I would change the shape, size and colour of my casing. I would make it rounded and sleeker looking. Secondly I would make it so the battery and PCB were held firmly in place.
During this product I have learned a lot of things that are useful to everyday life. I have learnt how to calculate many different things using formulas. I am a lot more confident in soldering components and I feel that I have improved as a person because doing this project has been hard. I have had to manage my time, learn to work with people and concentrate in the task in hand.