This week we spent time working on our projects. It was extremely productive as we moved farther along in process. Vishal had us focus on printing our prototypes. We designed our vertical garden on Fusion. It was hard deciding how big to make the garden and we knew we needed a few parts. We uploaded it in to Cura and it said it would take over a day and a half to print. We adjusted our measurements to a smaller size. Instead, we printed a version that was 4 inches by 3 inches. This sample allowed us to get a good idea what it would look like. The printing job did not start off too well. The drainage holes would not stick to the printer. Then the holes for the screws were too big and ovals. We saw immediately that we needed to make a few adjustments. As the printer kept going and layer started piling on the garden looked better. The drain holes were sticking and it grew into the right shapes. I am happy that we had this time to print because it gave us great direction.

Norman also made great progress this week with the soil moisture sensors. He was able to get the sensors to send signals to the monitor. When I put my finger on the sensor I saw how the temperature increased. We will have to do further research about soil temperatures to decide when to alert the owner that the garden needs to be water. I am excited about developing this project.

I enjoyed reading the article this week regarding prototype testing. I think it has very relevant information with our current projects. It talks about updating your prototype by identifying the problems. We clearly identified problems with our screw holes and need to fix this. I think showing other users our prototype will give us valuable information about how to improve our project.

The article I found discusses 3 considerations before prototyping, which I thought could be helpful. Check it out!

https://www.stratasysdirect.com/applications/rapid-prototyping/3d-printing-prototype-considerations