Solidworks Drawings and Renderings

Here are images of the rendered Electra Prox device giving front views of display as well as isometric renderings and also an exploded view of the entire device which gives you an idea of what the device looks like.

Painting Model

Painting and Primer this was done with aerosol car paint and 7 layers of grey primer and 5 layers of matt black were applied to the model. This gave it a nice black finish.

Model Making Progress

Update on Progress of the model sanding, machining, drilling and fitting now completed onto primer and paint next then final detailing. Hoping to have it completed by Monday morning at the latest.

Report Writing

Research report is up to date now so that just needs to be kept updated and polished off over the next few days. The business plan was also completed late last night so its good to have that out of the way the next thing is to finalise the solidworks and finish off the model over the next few days.

This is a rough draft of the report front cover page and thsi will be tidied up over the next day or two and a solidworks rendered image will be placed in the white section in the middle when it is completed.

Product Branding Logos

Some logo concepts for the branding aspect of the project. The logo would be placed on the product and all the other aspects of the company as well such as advetisements and company vehicles.

New Model

Assembled model this was craeted in sections using
the laser cutter and was then glued together to create the three individual pieces as seen above. The material used in the model is 6mm MDF which is an excellent model making material with the laser cutter. The next step is to sand the model down to create a good key for the paint to adhere to as well as drilling any holes and other thing that need to be done before primer and paint.


Concept Change

After some research and investigation on the ball system I have come to the conclusion that it will work for this application because it would have to be to big so I am going to return to an earlier concept. This will allow me to incorporate the electronic warning glow and controls into the one piece.

Assembled Mounting System

This mounting system allows the device to be located on any surface in the vechicle as the ball mount technology gives a wide range of motion while fixed vertically or horizontally in the machines cab.

Ball Mounting System

Concept Inspiration Dyson

A major part of the project for me the mounting system for the cab display which must be moveable and fix to either a vertical or horizontal surface. So after much thought and research i am going to use the ball steering system on the Dyson vacuum as inspiration for the mounting system which must move in all directions.

Been A While!!!!

Its been a while since i have blogged so i was just looking at technologies for the product and i think the most important part of the project is the interface of the product which is located in the cab of the vechicle.

Research Books

Henry Drefuss The Measure of a Man & Woman and also Designing with the Mind in Mind by Morgan Kaufman are excellent books for interface design and for peoples habits and traits while operating a machine.

Sensors

EMF sensors are the way to go i think after doing some research in this area.

Possible areas for use

Modern Machinery

Here are some of the modern day machinery which are getting larger and larger as the demands on farming grows bigger and bigger. This increase in size means that machinery are more inclined to hit off or touch electric cables. So in urban areas the cables are being buried but this wont happen in rural areas because it is to expensive. So some device needs to be made to alert the operater of the danger around him. Loaders, silage harvesters, combines and excavators are some of the machines which could be affected by the overhead cables.
 

 Some ideas were for a grounding device when contact is made with cables. A warning system to alert of impending danger. A glide wheel may also be use to guide the lines over the top.

The materials choice is also an important area in this as some materials are more conductive than others. An area that could be looked at is the area of biomimicry and how birds land on wires.

Safety:- Chosen focus area.

Safety in agriculture was what I identified as an area that I would like to look at. This came about because safety on the farm is always a major point of discussion in Ireland. The areas within safety that I intend to look at is electricity on the farm and how electrocutions on the farm can be limited.

Project Timetable & Requirements

New Logos for myself

 Learning how to generate logos on photoshop cs5 so i decided to make a few logos for myself and I think they look well love the contrasting colours of the black and purple as well as the black and green. Clean and simple is the way to go in my opinion. There may be more to come...Watch this space.

Further Brainstorming

After the last idea suggestions were posted I decided to reduce the list to areas that I was interested in so from this list I have choosen agriculture as an area. The next step was to investigate the area of agriculture more I decided to do this by brainstorming. The idea of this was to investigate all areas of agriculture by not reducing or limiting myself.

So agriculture was placed in the centre and the main areas were taken from agriculture such as fuel/energy, safety, machinery, livestock farm aids/help and sustainability. After this each of these were brainstormed which widened out each of these areas as large as possible.

NOW QUESTIONS HAVE TO BE ASKED..... WHAT IF.

Inspiration

Some phrases to keep in mind while choosing an area to focus on keep your mind open so your not restricting yourself to early in the process.

Day 1 Research- Idea Wall

 Idea wall using sticky notes

Initial idea generation anything that come to mind stick it on the wall as a possible project direction. From here the suggestion would be narrowed down and a direction choosen.

The Brief

We have been given a new brief for our Design for Sustainable Innovation Module.Our aim is to identify and solve REAL WORLD PROBLEMS. In this project i will have to engage with my own willingness to learn and develop my own skills and creativityas well as resourcefulness to create and develop an effective solutionto the identifed problem area. Through out the project research will be carried out as well as concept generation through rendered sketches, 3D solidworks models as well as physical workshop models. The next stage for me is to identify a target area or direction for the project to go in.