Differences between performances

Differences between theoretical, practical and most favorable performances

Theoretical:

The brushless lift motor uses 3 ampere to lift the whole design
The skirt of the design should be 2 inches tall
The distance between the frame plates can be 1,2 inch
There are 2 propellers of thesame dimensions needed

Most favorable:
The brushless lift motor uses 1 ampere to lift the whole design
The skirt of the design should be 1,8 inches tall
The distance between the frame plates can be 1,1 inch
There are 2 propellers of thesame dimensions needed

Practical:
There brushless lift motor uses 2 ampere to lift the whole design
The skirt of the design should be 4,5 inches tall
The distance between the frame plates can be 1,6 inch
There is 1 lefthanded propeller and one right handed propeller with turned engine needed

We can conclude that there is always a efficiency between theoretical, practical and most favorable performances. Our conclusion in this project is:
The skirt needs to be taller then expected ( which only looks better in the design which was not expected )
The brushless motor lift motor uses less elektrical energy then expected
The distance between the plates cannot be achieved when there is no mounting door in the upper-plate
There are 2 different types of trust propellers needed, an accesoire as third propeller cannot be done by this.

The reasons why the calculations didn't turn out to fit are:
The brushless motor was calculated on pure weights. So that doesn't include all of the elements that make the hovercraft lift. Because of the water the hovercraft didn't need that much power.

The skirt was designed on its roundings, wat we didn't knew was that they need to be blown up for propper work.

The plates can't be 1 inch close to eachother. This because they also need to be mounted as one.

The 2 propellers are slapping wind sideways. Thats why they can't be thesame.

So u see. Theoretical there can always be a certain kind of information missing.
That's why its always good to test it anyways, no matter how surten you are.

Lagers

To make myself more known in the world of bearing i ordered a book about bearings.
The most difficult type of usual bearings for me.

Software&hardware Flowchart

To visualize the soft and hardware of our design.. we build up a flowchart. The important thing in this flowchart is that the software components are working together with the hardware components

Quality monitoring

To monitor the quality of our project we made a PVA.
In the third fase of the project we devided responsebility.

In the last week KOEN said he couldn't finish his part of responsebility.
I allready told him he couldn't but he wouldn't listen. So we did the work.

Planning and re-planning

How the planning should have been was:

But what the planning finally was:

Falling back on sub-sub system design

8 Hours before the presentation we where afraid that the brushless motor wouldn't deliver enough power to lift the hovercraft. We looked back at our sub-sub systems and knew it would be powerfull enough, so we continued working. In the beginning we didn't succeed lifting. We knew the brushless motor was strong enough so the only thing that could be bothering was the rotor. We opened the rotorbox, used some magical glue en fitting and tested again.

And what turned out? Hell yeah, the sub-sub system design was correct.

Testing the design

This was the ultimate moment of testing our prototype!
Exiting for us all. It was as learnfull and succesfull moment.

Why we chose certain components

Because the chamber in the airpillow under the solarpanel needs to be as thin as possible it is of priority we use a thin lift motor. Normal DC motors are way to high and do not last long. This way we had to choose a brushless motor with a regulator. With this choise we are sure our design lasts long ( because the lift motor is the most used component ) and stays thin. With a lift rate of 600 grams and a speed of over 13000 rounds p/m we should have the best use of component. It has a over capacity because this way it uses less power.

The hovercrafts skirt needs to be filled with air. This is way it's important that the skirt is made of flexibel material. But what most groups seems to forget is that it's also floating on water. Then the skirt is too flexible it wil take water and sink. This is why we chose to use very thin rubber. The thin rubber we chose is originally made for peoples ponds.

As for the trust motors, we chose to use propellers, they can make a high rent but low pressure. This is good for the airflow and makes the hovercraft come forward. We use 2 small propellers because this way they don't interrupt the straight design and still deliver a high powerrate. As for the test: It was a succes. We use one left handed propeller and one right handed propeller. This way the hovercraft won't spin.




The mini servo's are very cheap and only take little power. They are a accelante choise for delivering the foodpackages at their coorinates. Why use air, high power recources etc, when u also can use the sun.

Long lives the battery

Because we want to know how long the hovercraft will last, and optimalize this, whe made a calculation of how long the battery will last. The diagram beneath includes all systems on full power. Thank god they will never be all acting on full power. It seemed that we only need 54,1 watt on full trust power, that meens the hovercraft can act longer then 2 hours with full sun!

Electrical schedule

As for the wiring: we set up a schedule with Fluidsim.

Sciencific records elektrical system

Sub- system design and sub- sub- system design

Because of the various systems we made a difference between systems, sub-systems and sub-sub systems

Gradelist fase procesplan

We got ourselves a grade for bëeing souch a wonderfull engineers as we where.. This grades include all of the first fase we when through.

Promotiefilm van het eindresultaat

THE DESIGN

Well, finally here is the endresult of the design!
Only one week left for the presentation of our prototype.

Almost finished prototyping

Here the first visualisation of building the Black Servent. Yesterday we were designing a promotionmovie of our product, today i was building on the frame of the Black Servent.

Today we tested our solar panel. always enjoying when something works!

Propeller

Earodynamics Ala Black Servent

Component Design

We are in the second week of the fase: Component design.
Today i learned the basics of calculations of construction and went to design my own propeller.

Nuclear discussion

Today we meet a discussion about nucleair technology. Some day's just don't pay out.

Robovision

Yesterday there was a Robovion event in Veldhoven. The mission was: Answer some questions and retrieve with many, many information.

The Questions:

What are physical characteristics of robots, obliging to humans?

The robot has the possibility to remind much more information than humans. This is because the robot has intern memorysystem what a human doensn't have.
A robot also doesn't get tired of listening to commands.

2. How does a robot react who listens to human?

It receives the command by a sensor. This can be a voice, a temperaturechangement, a lightpulse etc. After receiving the command it activates his computer which makes sure the designed components perform the actions which are programmed to take place in relation to the received command. The reaction can be anything that's being happening by a components output.

3. Where does a robot get's his information from? (by human)

It receives the command by a sensor. This can be a voice, a temperaturechangement, a lightpulse etc. Which kind of information it get's relies on which kind of receiver the robot exists of.

Some pictures to visualize the answers:

datamatrix sensor  from 1000 euro!!!

Charging by the sun

Today we bought our first testing part. A 12v 50w solar panel.

Tensegrity

Yesterday we learned something about the basics of tensegrity. This means: "How can you make a solid construction of 3 wooden sticks and some ropes, whithout touching eachother? Well this is the way:

Different type of bearings

Today we also got some information about different bearings and when they should be applied.

Weight of the Hovercraft

Now we made a calculation of the weight of the design we search for sub-system parts on the market.

Techno-Drawing

Today we were pleased with a lesson of technical drawings. Because of my educational level my drawing level is already relatively high. To prove this, i made a drawing.

Erasmusbrug

Today we made a soldered model. The cause of making this model is to feel how strong/fast/cheap soldering can be. We soldered a model of the Erasmus- bridge in Rotterdam in Holland.

How much forces can a bolt handle?

To make a solid decision which size and class of bolt we need, i made a calculation of the forces in and around the bolt which is to be mounted on the engine frame.

Change of used language

Specially for my friends from the United States of America and Germany:
From now on my blogs will be written in English.

System design

Well yes. Our system design can be summorized up on one A4 sheet.

N- D- & M lijn berekeningen

Berekeningen kunnen lastig zijn. Gelukkig is dit voor het basisframe van de hovercraft niet zo.

De moraal van dit verhaal

Vandaag heb ik een les ethiek genoten. Het ging over de verantwoordelijkheid van mij als toekomstig ingenieur. Tot hoe ver ben ik verantwoordelijk voor mijn werkzaamheden? Wij hebben een verantwoordelijkheids matrix gemaakt over de Challanger. Dit gaat over een raketlancering van de NASA die is gefaald dankzij directie- management beslissingen en/over ontwerpslagen. Zie onderstaande link voor de film over het fiasco.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwipEpNT6Qw

Ik als ingenieur ontwerper voel mij verantwoordelijk voor het effect dat mijn ontwerp of oplossing op het milieu, op de maatschappij en betrokkene partijen heeft. Een voorbeeld:

Wanneer mijn ontwerp minder had kunnen verbruiken was dit beter geweest voor het milieu. Terwijl als ik mijn ogen open had gehouden, dit misschien voorkomen had kunnen worden. Overdreven gezien: Als ik een tandje harder had gewerkt, was ik er misschien achter gekomen dat er een simpelere oplossing is voor het voeden van de motor, waardoor het milieu minder belast werd.

Wanneer ik in mijn carriëre ethische beslissingen zal moeten maken kan ik dat nu gegrond doen. De verantwoordingsmatrix kan mij helpen in hoeverre ik mij verantwoordelijk kan voelen. Hier speelt mijn moreel namelijk geen rol in. Ethiek houdt voor mij zaken en menselijkheid gescheiden.

Bezoek aan de Shell eco-marathon

Om alvast kennis te vergaren voor de eerste opdracht van volgend jaar zijn we naar de Shell Eco marathon gereisd. Ik moest informatie opdoen over het materiaalgebruik van de earodynamische delen van de voertuigen. Het blijkt dat het materiaalgebruik niet afhankelijk is van earodynamica tot een snelheid van gem. 50 km p/u! Tot die snelheid is enkel vormdesign van groot belang. Zie de foto voor de bron!

Tweede fase: System Design

De tweede fase van dit ontwerpproces dient er voor structuur te krijgen in het ontwerpproces. Onze probleemstelling is: Hoe kunnen we een radiografische voertuig bouwen die over land en water kan manoeuvreren en voedingssupplementen kan droppen in een straal van 10 meter bij de juiste boei ?

Er is een plan van aanpak gemaakt en we hebben de eerste bepalingen over het systeem gedaan. Zo hebben we bijvoorbeeld bepaald dat we de voedselpakketten niet gaan verschieten maar laten vallen. Dit bespaard veel energie maar moet wel nauwkeurig gebeuren! Ook hebben we al een aantal eisen en wensen over de hovercraft opgesteld. Dit hebben we gedaan a.d.h.v. analytische en empirische bepalingen.

Het handige hier aan is dat we weten welke kant we op gaan ontwerpen. We hebben bepaald welke systemen er in de hovercraft komen en welke sub-systemen er zullen zijn. Op naar de volgende fase!

Eerste fase: Procesplan

In de eerste fase hebben wij een basisontwerp moeten maken voor het ballenkanon van de hovercraft. Deze dient er voor het voedsel voor de mosselen te verschieten. Op deze foto staat het eindresultaat! Op het moment dat er met een afstandbediening een signaal wordt gegeven loopt de lucht van het zwarte luchtreservoir door een ventiel. Van dit ventiel gaat hij in de cilinder achter het ballenmagazijn. Deze cilinder drukt de voedselbal met een veer uit de loop. Hierdoor schiet de voedselbal weg. Kortom, een interressant elektrisch, pneumatisch en mechanisch stukje techniek.

First Arduino Elektrical eXperience!

Dit is een filmpje van een aantal oefeningen die ik voor een opdracht van school heb gedaan.
Deze oefeningen doelen er op de basisprincipen van elektronica te leren begrijpen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhsw1PMcoC0&list=HL1337587989&feature=mh_lolz