A Speed Bump (Week 5)

This week, we finished wiring the the breadboard and it should correctly deliver the information to the CNC machines.

In this picture, it shows the wiring (in blue) from the Arduino to the breadboard. For the board, the yellow and red wires would run to the CNC machines.

Bad news

When wiring the board to the mounted CNC machines, there was a strange, screechy sound. In the video, the sound can be heard whenever we try to attach the wires. This was the case for two CNC machines, which are responsible for the x and z axis. These two specific CNC machines were from CD drives we salvaged from computers that were headed to the trash, so we believe that had to do with the faulty hardware. We should've tested the machines before we mounted as we have to back track and remove these faulty CNC machines on top of getting new CD drives for new CNC machines.

Better News

We only used two salvaged CD drives to make the CNC machines. For the y-axis, we used a CD drives we got from a store. Although these drives were refurbished, they were tested unlike the salvaged drives, so our y-axis CNC machine works.

We plugged in the y-axis machine and created a quick code that would move the CNC machine back and forth using the arrow keys. As the video to the right shows, the platform is alive and listens to our commands. 

However, we didn't get any breaks at all. The movement of the platform is very rigid so we need a way to lubricate the slider or see if there is any drag on the platform. On top of this, the motor of the CNC machine gets hot super fast. This means that we probably have a shorted wire and have to hunt it down to correct it.

Upcoming

The parts we ordered are coming in and it is really cool to deal with so many new parts. So far, we received the head plug, t-connect, pump, and syringes (we had to explain the syringes weren't paraphernalia for our new-found heroin addiction). We are excited to start the chocolate-delivery system part of the project. At the same time, we are going to have to play with different chocolate recipes to find one with the perfect properties that would allow it to be liquid inside the tank and harden really quick. 

On the side note, fixing the hardware quickly is paramount to getting our project back up to speed. Writing up a fully functional code would also be a project of itself. We have just a handful of weeks left and we are excited to see the final product.