5/25/19 Week 8 Update

Lecture day 5/20/19:

During recitation time, the group talked over the remaining tasks that needed to be accomplished during Week 8. Those tasks are to test the setup that was built in Week 7 and see if our iteration of the project can be made functional or requires more design polish.

The group reached a consensus to meet on Tuesday, 5/21/2019 in the Innovation Studio, as most of our materials for the projects are stored there. During that time, we will attempt a test run of the control code with the gel that was made in Week 7 on 5/15/2019. The results of the test run will determine the future direction of the project and the future tasks that need to be accomplished.

Some of the pre-established concerns that came up during the group's pretesting efforts in the recitation were the following:

• The center of the neodymium magnet needed to be on exactly the same height as the the gel magnet, therefore either the base of the motor or the height of the neodymium magnet holder needs to be modified (height-wise)
• The neodymium magnet and the gel magnet also must match on the X & Y-Axes (height = Z-Axis)
• The height of the camera stand might be too high and therefore might give us inaccuracies when attempting to track the magnets movement and therefore our ability to correct its trajectory. 

Test Meeting on 5/21/19:

The group met with the prospects of starting a test run of the project. Multiple of the pretesting concerns had turned out to be valid concerns:

• The camera height was too high
• The gel was denser than it had been the Wednesday previous
• The neodymium magnet and the gel magnet did not match on the Z-Axis (height = Z-Axis)

The proposed fixes were as followed:

• Reduce the camera height to 10 in from ground surface
• Test the setup the day the gel is made
• The height of the external magnet's center will be 11.41 cm from the ground surface, and so will the gel magnet:
• This will require a reprint of the external magnet holder shown in red below in order to have the center of the external magnet be at the same height level as the gel magnets.

A visual representation of said height adjustment 

Lab day 5/22/19:

All of the proposed changes from the Test Meeting the day prior have been made during Lab time. The 3-D print for the third iteration of the magnet holder was started. The height adjustment to the camera stand was made, as can be seen in the background of the image above. Ryan made another dish of gel in today's lab that will be used in testing the setup tomorrow.