e-NABLE Fellowship - Karuna's Trumpet Holder - Hand Progress

I put in a short day today because later Bryan Cera is coming in to help me with a project I started last semester. I did get a little bit of work done on the hand part of the adaptive device... I'm not totally sold on the form the hand is taking, but I'm working through it... I've realized that the way I have gone about building the hand piece is the harder way. Looking at what I have modeled now, I wish I would have started from solids.


e-NABLE Fellowship - Karuna's Trumpet Holder - Hand

I've started working on the hand part of the trumpet holder for Karuna. This hand will be connected to the red dovetail section (that slides into the main body) by two recessed Chicago binding posts. I've downloaded the models for these screws from McMaster-Carr, to use in the design. I've also started to pull curves off of my existing pieces, so that I can start to recycle those design elements into the hand and gauntlet. I've also really quickly traced images of Karuna's hand to make sure that what I'm designing is the right size for his hand. His hand doesn't need to fit perfectly because there will be padding in the hand, but a general reference is nice.

e-NABLE Fellowship - Hand Designs



 



Part of the R&D that I am doing this summer for e-NABLE is thinking about new ways to approach designing the hands ---- main focus is keeping in mind the aesthetic and fit.  I am really interested in bringing in pattern & repetition into the design of the hand... !!!!THESE SCANS ARE SO BAD!!!! (sorry) - but in the design on the left, I am envisioning the stripped parts as being any type of pattern --- could be a texture, positive and negative space (think filagree), or a flexible functional element of the design. The design on the right is another one I was thinking about... it starts to contour more on the areas of the hand/palm/arm that are absolutely necessary --- almost like how make-up artists make rubber molds to fit to certain body parts - I am imagining this design more "seamlessly" integrating into the current structure of an individuals body.

Proceeding forward, I will be experimenting with making functional prototypes for certain areas of the design - gauntlet and the fingers.  I will also be playing with a few different processes for making the prototypes other than 3D printing, as well as experimenting with material.

e-NABLE Fellowship - Karuna's Trumpet Holder - Not All Prints Are Created Equal

After giving up on the pink filament and adjusting a few of the printer settings...
failure never looked so good 
I've finally gotten a few prints of the main part (v4) of the trumpet holder. I had been attempting to print two different versions; one with modeled supports and one with makerware supports...


The orange Invetables filament has given me the best results so far. This piece was printed horizontally on the bed, with makerware supports. I'm happy with the quality of this print - the tolerances are on point. 


The black Hatchbox filament is printing well, but I'm getting a lot of warp-age... This could be due to the filament or the vertical flat placement on the print bed. I'm doing another test print in black today so I will compare the results. The above image shows the larger gaps between the pink piece and the brass tubes. 


e-NABLE Fellowship - Karuna's Trumpet Holder - Design Revisions

The prints I've been getting of the main part are in need of a few design revisions... The piece between the two brass tubes on the left of the main piece is having a hard time printing, So tomorrow I will take this part out since the piece is rather secure on the trumpet without it.

With the makerware supports, there is quite a bit of clean-up on the inside... But, as long as it's cleaned well, the piece fits.

The set of parts that are attaching the hand piece to the trumpet are really low profile and strong. 



I will try closing the gap between the pink piece and the bottom of the brass tubes. 

They fit perfectly in the case, so would not need to be taken off between uses.
 The valve oil fits in the holes on the bottom piece with plenty of room to spare.

I'm going to try two different versions of the dovetail design tomorrow. I also think I'm going to scratch the pegs all together... I thought that these would be a nice customization aspect of the design - but for now they are superfluous.

e-NABLE Fellowship - Karuna's Trumpet Holder - Hand & Gauntlet

I've started thinking about designs for the hand and gauntlet attachments for the trumpet holder. 
It's important to me that these components will fit in the bottom of the trumpet case, and be easy to take on and off of the mount with one hand... The hand will have the dovetail insert attached to it at the palm and will Velcro over the back of the limb.

e-NABLE Fellowship - Karuna's Trumpet Holder - Progress


Last night I was able to get a good print of the main piece for the trumpet holder. I've now tested the pink piece I printed yesterday with the new piece - it fits more snug around the tubes coming out of the valves. Side note: I've been making sure to check that the adapter will fit in the case after each use, so that it wont need to be taken fully off after each use... That was my LEAST favorite part of band - disassembling and re-assembling... I played woodwinds and was often too lazy to take off the reed after each use - I couldn't imagine having to add the task of taking off this super-snug-fitting-adapter with one hand...


Frankie wanted the material on the back of the base piece slimmed down, so I designed and printed the above design. I'm happy with the revision. It makes the bottom piece a little more flexible. The weight of the base is much lighter now, which makes it feel more cohesive with the main piece.

I also made revisions to the main component and added a few more parts.

Frankie wanted to try making the dovetail piece (that eventually will attach to a palm and gauntlet) adjustable... So I've borrowed the pegs from the Rapter hand design and used them here as a locking mechanism for the dovetail component. 
Peg and offset before subtracting the holes....
...after subtracting holes for pegs - they're 10mm apart. 
... and some fingernail/tool grip spots - I'm not entirely sure these will work, but thought I'd give it a shot.  


Now, I'm just waiting on the printer...

e-NABLE Fellowship - Karuna's Trumpet Holder - New Base Design

After re-measuring the test print pieces from yesterday, I drew some curves to add a bottom to the base piece. I also modified some of the hole sizes and placements for where the brass tubes come out of the valves and shortened the main piece... Prints have been sent, so hopefully I will be able to test the prints today and make final designs tomorrow.



e-NABLE Fellowship - Karuna's Trumpet Holder - Fit & Tolerances

Today I spent quite a bit of time trying to print the main piece of the trumpet holder... The tension on the filament was loose and the bed was being sensitive. Eventually, I did get a print (larger piece you see below) and it fits pretty nicely (snaps into place) with a few sanded/snipped adjustments. I designed the bottom attachment piece, and printed that as well. There are a few measurements that need to be adjusted and I will add a bottom on the base piece for version 2. 




S100 - The Arduino Starter Kit - Project 08

The LED Hourglass project is essentially learning how to tell time with light. This is a very controlled way to work with outputs. The tutorial recommended programming the LEDs to turn on every ten minutes... but really, who has time to wait an hour for results? So, I programmed mine to come on every 6 seconds... Not a very "square" way to tell time, but it gets the job done.  36 IS the new 60.

e-NABLE Fellowship - Karuna's Trumpet Holder

Today was the first "official" day of my e-NABLE Fellowship through the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I was offered the fellowship earlier in the summer by Frankie, who has been an active member of the e-NABLE community for a couple years now. e-NABLE received a Google grant earlier this year, and part of that grant is going to design innovation... That is where I come in! I will be discussing my work with a couple other students from different Universities in the country.

I'm diving head first into a project that was started by some other UWM students last semester, Karuna's trumpet holder. The black part is what I am working to modify. The part currently is a little sloppy when attached to the trumpet, so I will be adjusting the tolerances and changing the fit a bit. After measuring and building the trumpet valves in Rhino, I created the part and sent the first test piece to the printer before I left for the night, so we will see how it works tomorrow.








S100 - The Arduino Starter Kit - Project 04

For this project, I was introduced to the PWM (pulse with modulation) technique, duty cycles, and photoresistor sensors.




The green photoresistor never seemed to be working... so I tried a few different photoresistors for this particular gel... but, still got the same results. I really like the fading that is being created by the amount of light visible to the sensor... I wonder if this would be a good way to change color in the compact mirror project...