The team leads went down to Wings Over the Rockies to attend a design review for the prototype thus far. They presented their design (which can be found in the assignments page as "Design Review Presentation" or from this link) and answered questions from those who also attended the review. The design review went very well and was a great opportunity for the team leads to discuss logistics and next steps with NASA Safety and the Ops team. The team leads are now working on design modifications and will start testing the whole system as soon as possible!
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The Software team is working on debugging the code to make sure the senors and motors will run at the appropriate time.
The team leads are making final preparations to get ready for the design review on this coming Thursday. As of today, all of the sensors and codes are working. The wires are soldered and connected to the inner casing. All of the printouts that hold the sensors are installed in the inner casing as well. One issue that has occurred is that the gears have to be aligned a certain way for the inner casing to fit with the gear case. After the cases are connected, the gears can't move. One solution might be to put a tab at the end that tells the gears to move. The teams are all working together to fix this issue. They're also coding in greater detail for the sensors.
Hardware Team: The motor case didn't leave room for the wires to be connected. A new case was re-designed and printed. The team then inserted the newly printed inner casing into the nanocube. Working on getting the wires attached for all the sensors. The motor is attached and is spinning the gears in the nanocube. The team is also printing separate plugs that will hold the sensors and insert into the inner case.
Software Team: Putting together all the modules into a main chunk of code. The team also performed bug testing on the existing modules. They also implemented a function found by other team members for converting temperature sensor data to actual temperatures. Biology Team: The team has looked at the all the previous data from the bacteria tests and found that the light readings for when the vial is in front of the photo resistor are higher than the normal resting position with no vial. When liquid is in the vial, there is a lens effect created, which focuses the light. The more transparent the liquid, the more the light is focused. Hardware Team: Wired the sensors and 3D printed many trials of pieces in a new motor case. The team has also been perfecting older designs. They attached the NESI to the plates.
Software Team: Soldered and installed sensors for inner casing. The team then preceded to de-solder the sensors from the inner casing. They also talked to Hector from Texas A&M about the relationship between return values and actual temperatures. Biology Team: Continued to freeze and thaw bacteria in vials. Also, the team designed on inventor a vial rack that they will print out soon. They grew bacteria in an ISS similar environment (23 degrees C, low humidity, and agitation). All teams have been working together on design review. Hardware Team: Glued the walls to the gear of the prototype. The team has also begun to wire the prototype.
Software Team: Tested the values of the temperature sensor. Biology Team: Experimented in freezing and thawing the bacteria in the vials to make sure it freezes to -20C for launch. Biology Team: Tested the vials of LB broth and LB broth with e.coli (The tube with the LB broth being the control). They analyzed data to see if there was a significant difference between ambient lights on or off. They tried to sterilize the pouches through pressure cooking the vials with a series of tests. After reaching the conclusion that it did not work, the team did another series of tests to find that using UV lights for 40 minutes did work. They also ran trials to see how much light was able to go through the vials.
Hardware Team: They were not as involved with the bacteria testing as the Biology and Software teams. A motor-gear to drive shaft attachment was 3-D printed and was tested to find its functionality. After running the gear for 2 hours, the test showed no damage to the motor or gear system. The team also fixed dimension issues with the inner casing and conducted a piece to hold the axle that worked with the new motor. They also tested the space inside the casing and changed the design from a square to a circular shape. Software Team: Made code to assist with the bacteria testing and finished main code. The code that assisted the biology team was made for the temperature testing of Glycerol solutions. We went over more NESI+ board functions and learned functions outside of NESI. Texas A&M thanked us profusely for our attention and cooperation. Dr Morgan said we are the best educated group of participants yet and is confident in our success. Then we were walked through the entire code for a finished project. Ended early then met as a group to outline next meeting. Thanks to CASIS,Texas A&M, and Wings Over the Rockies for providing the National Design Challenge workshop, and thanks to Biscuits & Berries for the food service! We learned so much this week!
Joe Morgan and Dean Tate presented phase II of the NESI+ teacher workshop. We reviewed hardware and software and talked about conceptual and functional block diagrams. We configured the connection of UART to laptops in the MPLABX setup and learned how to manipulate the files to not change the predefined NESI code. We put serial numbers on the NESI+ boards and validated the software code compilation and download to the board. Then, each school (Centaurus, Bell, and Chatfield) presented an overview of their projects and described the sensors, actuators, and issues they had. We discussed C programming elements and code modules. Then we programmed example projects to learn different functions, including the configuration of the camera. Afterwards, Derek Runberg from SparkFun came in to advise and answer the questions about sensor and actuator issues. We looked at different SparkFun products/resources on their site and at overall SparkFun peripherals.
Today, Joe Morgan and Dean Tate from Texas A&M University presented the NESI+ Teacher Workshop overview. We received our nanolab along with our primary and secondary toolboxes and parts kits. We configured and soldered through-holes on the NESI+ board. Then we learned about the hardware sections and had a high level view of the schematics of the NESI+ board through conceptual designs. After, we went over validation and appreciation of modifications to the board. We learned about NESI+ hardware, power, digital IN/OUT, analog IN/OUT, and communications.
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Image courtesy of CASIS
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April 2016
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