Final Fabrication

3D printing is an amazing technology that has been out since the late 1980's, but has not been pioneered until recently. This technology is still pretty expensive, yet there are still lots of flaws with 3D printing. For example, the creation of a simple Frisbee can probably take a few hours and can be very costly. However, 3D printing is great for making one-off products or prototypes because it can literally make anything as long as you have the instructions for it (CAD formats).

For this project I took on the idea of making my final something I can use, so I decided on creating a phone mount for my bike. I had to measure and draw out the dimensions for my mount that was originally meant for my flashlight, and I made the design in Inventor. I took a OnePlus One case design from the internet because I do not know how to measure the angle of the back of my phone to fit my phone. I created the STL file and I had Fictiv fabricate this for me. At first there a few problems, like dimensions (Inventor turned the design into cm instead of mm) and I had no idea what material to use, but the guy at Fictiv recommended PLA since it was the cheapest and it printed fast.

The 3D printed took about 3 days to make and 2 days to ship. The total cost of all of this was $32.07. During the printing process, the guys at Fictiv realized that PLA was probably not the best material for this because the print was rough and inaccurate. They recommended ABS as the material to use, but I told them to keep using PLA because I was not willing to spend more money on the material and the faster shipping in order to showcase my design on the day of the final.

I had Paras fabricate my product. To be honest, I didn't expect much because making a phone case that fits my phone and a mount that fits my bike mount is extremely hard due to the exact dimensions required for everything to work. However after looking at the finished product, I decided that 3D printers are probably best for jobs that require such accuracy and precision. However for objects with little functionality (like an icosahedron) it would probably be more practical for a human to fabricate it because it would be faster to make and cost much less. Work drawings are very vital to communicate the design of the product, but I think that the finished STL file or CAD file is much better. Programs like inventor can open these files and you can take a 360 view around the object, and you can also measure wherever you need, whereas on the drawing you fully depend on the views and measurements that the creator provides you with. Animated assemblies shows all parts of the assembly and gives the fabricator a better understanding on how the part comes together. Beyond the design process, it just looks cool for the consumer to look at and it could probably also show the consumer on how the part came together.

Maker Faire Reflection Post

Maker Faire of last weekend was definitely unforgettable. Not only were there tons of creations showcased there, we were part of the many people who showed off what they can make. I think our showcase design was especially good, because we had three running computers which had the game. Even then, there were still people lining up to play Adrastus. I think the idea of the projector was great, because we could show the crowd what's going on. However, I think that we should've had shift patterns for the people who were there at Maker Faire, because I was working really hard on Saturday, and by Sunday I had already been tired out and didn't do much that day. Also, I think that we should get more help from the school rather than depend on the student's equipment to run the game. Not all students have projectors, tv screens, or laptops, and we were blessed to have all these equipment. The other booths at Maker Faire are very inspirational, and I think we can improve ourselves on it next year. We could have robots that could grab other people's attention. From the survey, I see that many people would not play the game again, but its nice to know that people are pretty amazed at what we accomplished in two month's time. Next year, I would like to see better graphics, an earlier start on the project, and more teamwork. Unfortunately, I did not take pictures or document while at Maker Faire. At our showcase, many people asked questions about the program and how we built the game. They were especially amazed at how fast we put together the game, and the fact that we are high schoolers. It is amazing to see the number of people who do not know the WASD controls, which is pretty much the basics of gaming.

Maker Faire Showcase Concept

My design for our showcase at Maker Faire includes two laptops with the objective/rules of the game next to the laptops, and a trifold poster behind the laptops. On the table, there will be things we did in this class, so we actually showcase our class as a whole, not just the game. If needed, we can use speakers (that I'm willing to provide) for one of the computers to play the sounds out loud. Austyn told me that he might bring a TV, and I think it would fit perfectly in the back.

My role on this team was to sort of over-watch and keep an eye on everyone's work. I do my best to help whatever team that needs help, but most importantly, I over-watched the progress of the game. My contributions include: helping the audio team with the music, CAD'ing the dock, help figure out the problem with water, and many more. Ultimately, I provided my personal opinions for whatever we were working on. From the beginning to end, I feel as if my job stayed as constant overviewing of the project, and helping out others, although many times I did get carried off doing things I shouldn't be doing during our valuable class time.

Nonetheless, our team pulled off the game, which is pretty much done now, with just some aesthetics changes and debugging. Our team did a great job on giving each other feedback on any ideas brought up. Some of our jobs may have not been what we have originally intended, but we still pulled off this amazing game in about 2 months.

The only wish I have that would have made our process much faster was if we were able to work on multiple computers for a single file, like a Google Doc, but for Unity. Because we could only work on this on one computer per level, the entire level is pretty much limited to two people, slowing down our design process.

To be honest, I am not sure of my greatest achievement, but the first thing to come out my mind is creating the Facebook group for our entire class to share ideas and comment. I think this really helped with our communication outside of school, so we knew what to do before we get to class. It has only been a month and a half since the group was set up and we have been filling the group with updates on our progress.

Maker Faire Reflection

This week I CAD'd the dock for our game with the help of Ryan. It wasn't too hard, and we ran into a few problems along the way but within two days we finished the dock.

In addition, I created a survey for people to vote what they want on the Intro to Design T-shirt at Maker Faire. The results is that we will be having a black, professionally made shirt with Sonia's design. However, there will be a few changes made on the shirt design in general, like coloring and the names on the back.

Maker Faire Update 2

This week I helped out Austin with figuring out how to add water onto the map. I looked up videos on Youtube and found out that there's a program called "Water4Simple" which has waves. In addition, I tried helping out audio team with the music on the piano, but they said they didn't need me. Looking at the T-shirt design, I believe that it's a great idea, but minor improvement's can be made on Sonia's design of the shirt.

Reflection Post on this week's work for game

This week I helped the audio team with the music they had in mind. They chose to have Lacie's Melody for our game, and wanted it on piano due to copyright reasons. Using a sheet music from a site online, I played it. In addition, I tried helping with problems we had on inventor for the level designer of the coliseum, but the problems with drawing a 2D sketch on a curved surface and making a circular pattern with an extruded part remains.

Maker Faire Application

I think the job that I would do best in is oversight, because I love to work on projects in general and I enjoy working with people and solving problems. In robotics club, I often find myself working with other people and working together to make the best robot for our need. As oversight, I will be working with everyone and making sure everything gets done on time, while also helping everyone find solutions to problems we run into.