Group 3
Exploring
Engineering
Darin Gray
July 8th, 2011
Max Reinisch
Niccolo Lamanna
Niccolo Valerio
Marc Hermann
Darren Draper
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Before going to the building or computer first,
our group relied on drawings and sketches as a
basis for our work
As we became more confident in our work, we
applied it to the computer simulator but
constantly referred back to our principle
sketches
After creating a successful circuit on the
computer, we started building and testing
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First Step:
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We began applying our knowledge of binary logic
and the uses of logic gates to solve for the output we
wanted
Trial and Error
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Second Step:
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Apply Boolean Algebra to our logic gates and create
complex combinations of logic gates
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Third Step:
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Rough build plan sketch on paper to make the
circuit will flow
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Fourth Step
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Copy our paper sketches into “Yenka” to simulate
the circuit and find any errors
Find any places in the circuit to make either more
simple or make small changes to in “Yenka”
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Begin constructing the circuit by hand and
testing the circuit
If the circuit didn’t work at all, or only worked
in some cases, we used the multi-meter to test
the voltage in the circuit board to find our
errors
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Overall, this project relied heavily on the
distribution of jobs amongst group members
with the short time we had and many tasks to
accomplish
The success we had was because of our ability
to get things done together as a team and each
contribute by getting our separate jobs done
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Niccolo Lamanna and Valerio were most often
involved in the building of the circuit.
Max Reinisch was most involved with the
design of the circuit.
Marc Hermann helped Max with the design
and building of the alarm circuit. He also
helped Darren with the PowerPoint.
Darren Draper created the website and
PowerPoint. He also took photos and shot
video.
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Overall, we faced many challenges while doing
this project from design issues, to
understanding and application.
The first and one of the biggest challenges was
understanding how to wire the circuit with the
logic gates
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Turning one light on while tripping the prior light
off was a big challenge we had in our designs
This challenge was overcome and we found success
after we applied the Boolean Algebra introduced by
Niranjan
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We also faced many problems with the
translation of what we had in our rough
sketches to applying it to our actual circuit
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This problem was not fully overcome by the end of
day two of design/building, and thus why our
circuit doesn’t fully work
This problem was mainly due to the different
designs we had, and the inability to find our small
errors in wiring even though our schematic design
worked
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Instead of building the entire circuit as one big piece,
we tried to separate the sensors and then connect them
at the end
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This was another glaring error in our attack to wire the circuit
As we added more pieces to the circuit, either power wasn’t
getting all the way through, or it was too confusing to try and
rewire what we already had on the circuit board
One continuous obstacle we had was short circuiting.
The input and outputs of the switches would touch
and short-ciruit, thus not allowing our circuit to fully
work
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We solved this by attaching electrical tape to the three wires
coming out of the switches, and it greatly improved our design
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To start with, if we knew our true reason for
failure, we would have been able to fix it and
find success in our circuit
With that said, we think our main reason for
failure was the wiring
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Our plan was complicated and when we tried to
combine the different sensors and alarm when
wiring, many of the wires got mixed up and didnt
create a complete circuit
For this, some of our circuit works, and other parts
are not complete
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We would improve the project by replacing long
and messy wires with short, clean ones
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If we made this circuit again, we would draw a
detailed design of the circuit board and clearly
label the wires and gates
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This would make it more organized and easily
comprehendible so we could find our errors more easily
Our goal for this step would be to be able to assemble the
circuit with ease in little time because our picture would
be so clear
Another path we would take if we had more time,
would be attempting to use the least amount of
gates to maintain simplicity
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First and foremost, we all learned that frustration is part of
engineering.
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We learned a lot about each other as people, how we work,
and our strengths and weaknesses
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This benefited us when dividing up labor and finding the best
person for each job
We learned about the importance of the step-by-step process
needed before construction can even start
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Hopefully, next time, we can keep from becoming irritated and
just focus our efforts towards solving it.
Planning is key to an engineers success and always relying on
basic sketches and designs will ensure that success
We also learned the importance of team work and division
of labor
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Without this fact in mind, we wouldn’t have been able to finish as
much as we did
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Now that we know each other better as people and
engineers, we are certain that if we work together
again, we would have great success
If we would redo this project again, our team
would work in smaller teams like we did this time,
but at first all work together to come up with a
clear and simple schematic design
At times, our frustration levels with designing the
circuit overcame our ability to focus on the central
goal, thus why we would makes sure we always
stay focused and concentrated on the task