Early Design

This week everyone in my group was working on various parts of designing a prototype for our bar standiometer idea (still unnamed). Randol was put in charge of coming up with a parts list and Rafael is begging to work on/research the coding involved in making the bar work properly.

We have decided to go with the arduino for our project because the needs of our project are fairly simple and the arduino is easier to work with the a raspberry pie for example.

The job I have been/ will be working on is designing and 3-D printing the body of the device. Since the parts list has not been completed I havent been able to go too in depth with this design. However, I have mocked up a rough sketch of what I estimate the dimensions on the device will be. I know we talked about using an arduino nano which will fit in this design. However, there are still many dimensions that I do not know and have to figure out before proceeding.

One of the most important things that I think we have to figure out size wise is how long it has to be. There are many factors that come into play here. For starters we want to have sensors on either side so there has to be clearance to the floor on either side. Second I am not sure how well the sensors will detect distance. For example, does the sensor project a conical shape of sound that might pick up the patient body rather than the ground. Some other factors are that we have to account for thicker-set patients that might set off the bar more easily.