Project Logs

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• Log of 13/05/2025

  imanolink • 2 days ago • 0 comments

  Hello, today after testing the project, we unfortunately realized that it doesn't hold up properly. In fact, for the project to work, something really needs to support the dial. If we don’t hold it, the whole mechanism tilts to one side, and nothing works.

  We had to go back and rethink things, but that helped us understand that we were on the wrong track, and the help from our teachers allowed us to get back on course. Of course, this is perfectly normal, and we managed to correct our approach. Thanks to Vincent, we came up with a new idea. We had already thought about creating a support block to simply hold the project up, but having only one block caused the whole structure to lean, which prevented it from staying upright and working as intended. Vincent then suggested removing the single block and adding three others to support both the lower gear (screwed to the three blocks) and the dial. Thanks to this, the project should now stand properly and function.

  In practice, today, we decided to remove the glue from the non-visible parts to put ourselves in more “industrial” conditions, meaning we tried to replace glue with screws as much as possible (of course, we kept the glue for the visible parts since otherwise it would look much worse). We also designed the three support blocks in Autodesk Fusion to 3D-print them. In addition, we started trying to make better hands for the clock.

  We ended the session with that and concluded that we will work on finishing the project next Friday after the final exams.

• Logs of 07-09-12/05/2025 ( External session )

  imanolink • 3 days ago • 0 comments

  After calculating and listing the dimensions of the different parts that would serve as axes for our various gears, we cut them out with the laser cutter. We also 3D-printed a cylinder, which would also serve as an axis, since it is not a shape that can be made with the laser cutter.

  We realized that the cut-out shapes would not make good axes for the gears that are not directly connected to the motor because they would need to have a circular shape. So, we rounded and widened the holes in the gears using a drill. Then we modeled new cylinders on Fusion with the same dimensions, but this time, we added bases to be able to fix the axes to the dial.
  We also used the laser cutter to make the numbers for the clock. We took the opportunity to remake the dial and the hands, which were missing a hole to pass the axes through. We then glued the numbers to the dial with a hot glue gun. After that, we used it to start assembling our clock, gluing some of the gears.

  We finished the 3D printing of the cylinders with bases, then we assembled them with the rest of the structure by sanding the parts that needed resizing. We then finished the assembly of the clock by fitting all the gears as best as we could. We faced some difficulties because the clock dial obstructed our view and our movements, but we still managed to handle it. We also added pieces around the dial: a shim to keep the dial in the air at a fixed position so it wouldn't block the movement of the gears, and the support for the minute hand, which we had to elevate to allow it to pass over the dial.

  We also redid the code and the wiring for the step motor so that it properly rotates our central gear and thus the minute hand at a speed of 1 turn per hour.

  Finaly, a big part of the project was done with this session.

• Log of 06/05

  imanolink • 3 days ago • 0 comments

  Hi, this week we spent a lot of time thinking about the gear problem, which turned out to be more challenging than expected. The main issue was that the gears couldn’t rotate properly unless they were slightly elevated—otherwise, they would rotate at the same speed as the main gear, making the whole mechanism ineffective.

  To fix this, we explored several solutions using both the laser cutter and the 3D printer (which we had never used before—so it was a first for us!). We considered adding a small cylinder as a spacer and also designed wooden blocks that would perfectly match the size of the holes, helping to lift the secondary gears.

  After calculating the right dimensions, we laser-cut and 3D-printed the necessary components. Arnaud focused on producing these parts, while Carl started working on the final version of the code and laser-cut the clock numbers to improve the design.

  All our components fit together nicely, and the manual tests showed that the gears could rotate freely without slipping or locking.
  We were really pleased with how everything came together by the end of the session!

• Log of 29/04

  imanolink • 04/29/2025 at 09:24 • 0 comments

  Hello, today we made some progress on our project, but one member of our group was missing, so it was difficult to move forward quickly.

  We realized that we actually needed to add a hole in the center of our gears because there seemed to be an issue when drilling holes with a drill. So, we went to the 7th floor once again to get the gears and used the printer to cut holes in the center. After many issues (lots of crashes...), we finally managed to get the gears!

  Even though we couldn't make full progress, we identified two main problems that need to be fixed for our project to work during the final session:

  • The gears need to sit straight on the servo motor, because if we stack gears on top of each other, the whole thing leans to one side.

  • Also, some of the internal gears need to be able to rotate, since we still don’t really know how to make the gears work properly.

  That’s where we stopped for today’s session.

• Log of 22/04

  imanolink • 04/24/2025 at 13:19 • 0 comments

  Hi, today we dedicated the entire session to laser-cutting the shapes we had designed last week.

  To begin with, since we couldn’t retrieve our previous settings, I had to reconfigure all the laser cutter parameters from scratch. After that, we downloaded the necessary component files—though we had to pay for them, as they weren’t freely available.

  Then, we went up to the 8th floor to use the laser cutter. Cutting the gears took a while because the teacher was assisting other students, so we had to wait our turn. However, once we got started, the process went smoothly.

  The best part is that the gears we made fit together perfectly. When we tested them manually, everything meshed well, with no jamming or misalignment—proof that our measurements and design were accurate.

  By the end of the session, we had a set of beautifully cut gears, precise and ready for assembly. It was a very satisfying outcome, especially after all the preparation that went into the design.

• Log 08/04/2025

  imanolink • 04/08/2025 at 09:51 • 0 comments

  Last week, we didn’t take any notes because an external guest came to talk about Croatia (we’re not really sure why, but that’s what happened). He was very friendly and gave us a website where we could find free gear models. That’s how we ended the session.

  We started this session (08/04) by telling Vladimir that we didn’t know how to design the gear mechanism for our project. He told us to start a new sketch for it and to come back to him once we had something to show.
  

  After going back to Vladimir to ask if our sketch was correct, he explained to us how gears work using a website called https://geargenerator.com. So, we created two diagrams on this site: one with an internal gear and another with only regular gears.

  The main problem with this was that we needed to center the gear that will be connected to the hour hand. We spent a lot of time trying to solve this centering issue. In the end, we managed to get this result:

• Log of 18/03

  imanolink • 04/01/2025 at 09:32 • 0 comments

  This week, we started by designing a 3D model of our project using Autodesk Fusion. This model represents the clock itself, with all the necessary dimensions.

  However, during a review with our teacher, he pointed out that our project did not fully comply with one of the requirements in the brief: it lacked a key mechanical aspect — the use of gears.

  Following this feedback, we decided to integrate a gear system into our design to better meet the expectations of the project. We planned a first set of gears to drive the minute hand, and a second gear system positioned around the edge of the clock to rotate another hand that indicates the hours.

• Log of 11/03

  imanolink • 03/18/2025 at 09:01 • 0 comments

  Today, we took a step back to imagine the project by making sketches and thinking about its functionalities. Then, we started building the cardboard prototype.

  When we began working on the cardboard prototype, we encountered a major problem. We couldn't place all the hands on the same vertical axis because they would inevitably touch at some point. Additionally, it was impossible to position all the hands on the same rotation axis, as we couldn’t just stack the servomotors on top of each other or attach multiple hands to the same servomotor (otherwise, they would all rotate simultaneously, which wouldn't be useful).

  However, we came up with an idea! Instead of using three hands, we decided to keep only one—the minute hand. As for the hour indication, we thought of making the RGB LEDs on the numbers change color (to red) when an hour transitions to the next.

  We’ve also start to make the arduino code this week but we ended by only making the connection of the arduino card. 

• Log of 04/03/2025

  imanolink • 03/04/2025 at 10:00 • 0 comments

  Today, we continued what we started last week, which was visualizing our project idea. We created sketches (including dimensions and project details) and a Fusion 360 representation to model the project in 3D.

  We also created the Hackday project page (where I am writing this log), where I documented all the logs and uploaded the images.

  Additionally, we considered making a cardboard prototype of the project, but we didn't have enough time to complete it. We will do it next time to kick-start the technical aspect of the project.

  (I have uploaded the sketch and the Fusion 360 file in the files and images section.)

• Log of 25/02/2025

  imanolink • 03/04/2025 at 08:50 • 0 comments

  During this session, we mainly thought about which project we were going to work on. After some reflection, we decided to create a clock with multiple features:

  • 3 hands (hour, minute, second)
  • LEDs on each hour, with three different colors for each hand (RGB)
  • One hand/color takes priority over the others (Hour > Minute > Second)
  • Thermometer, Hygrometer, Luxmeter…
  • Chime every hour

  We also considered how we could logistically carry out this project, and before we knew it, the session was over.

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