During our second week of working on our final project, we decided to test out and fine tune our code and design.
On Tuesday we decided to test out our code with a servo motor on the toilet tank we had just recieved, and after finding out that the servo motor did not rotate as much as we wanted it to, we adjusted the wheel that we had attached to the motor by increasing the diameter of the outer wheel. To do this, we glued cut segments of popsicle sticks to the wheel for our string to wrap around. We then decided to test out our mechanism on an actual toilet in the science center to make sure that the motor had enough torque when used in a real life setting with the increased resistance of water.
On Friday, we had to pitch out idea and prototype and received very helpful comments to increase the time between the LED flashes to make it easier for the kids to leave the bathroom stall before the toilet flushes. We also had received in the mail our LED light up button, and at first had difficulty connecting it to the arduino, and in the process short circuited one of our buttons 🙁
Over all, I am very confident in our project and excited to see the final product 🙂
I like your group chose to vary the LED blink rate as to denote time to the children.
I’m impressed that you were able to use a 180 degree servo and modify it to your needs. Nice job 🙂 And congrats on flushing a sci toilet