Week 2: Chassis Construction

Mechanical

Where we left off last week for the mechanical status was signing-up for training at Watimake! Our mechanical lead, Shanika, was set to participate in training at Waitmake Monday, January 17th, however due to the unexpected snowstorm 🌨️☃️❄️she was unable to attend the training. Thankfully though, she was able to go in Wednesday, January 19th to start with the printing!

The table below shows the finished print of our pot that Shanika was able to complete. As you can see from the first image on the left, one of the holes for the ultrasonic sensors was not printed properly, but that can be easily covered up. This will not pose an issue with the actual sensor itself, as the transmitter and receivers will still be fully exposed, the only issue it may create it an issue with aesthetics. Other than that, the print looked good, and was ready to be tested with our electrical components. The remainder of our 3D prints should be done by Friday, January 21st, with assistance from the WatiMake team!

Furthermore, this was a big week for the mechanical team, as laser cutting for our water tank went underway Thursday, January 20th. The pictures below show the assembled water tank (minus the glue and foam gaskets) cut by Shanika. You can see that the fit is a bit looser than she would've hoped, but with the help from the foam and glue this should not pose an issue. To ensure this, further testing will be performed to validate the waterproofing of the tank. Regardless of this small issue, the overall tank looks A M A Z I N G with the crystal clear acrylic and smooth edges. Well done Shanika!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

As a quick little bonus, here's a video of our tank:

Software

In terms of software, work into planning out the mobile app had begun.

Other Logistics

More work into the website was underway with additional blogposts, hyperlinking our LinkedIn URLs and more website formatting through Wix. We also started to discuss potential names for our system (because as of now, we've been going by the Automated Plant Monitoring Systems... has a great ring to it eh?) Potential names we've discussed are "Plant Buddy" or "Antheia" (goddess of gardens, flowers, swamps and marshes)

Additionally, our orders from RobotShop finally arrived by Wednesday, January 19th!! This was integral to our system as it contained the battery to power our lil' pot. As of now, all our parts have arrived and further testing into the components could be completed. Peep below for our component haul! It should be noted that some of the parts we have ourselves (like the Arduino, moisture sensor, ultrasonic sensors, light sensors, etc.) and so testing into these components were already done last week.