February - Mechanical Fixes on the Earthquake Simulator

The vertical axis continued to experience multiple mechanical issues that I had to fix. When I tested the homing function on the vertical oscillator, I noticed that the range of motion was limited. Mr. Harlow suggested that I take off Stepper 1 to fix the alignment of the motors (figure 1). This was a struggle, as the components I needed to access were in a difficult spot to reach. I was able to align everything after a few attempts, only for the setup to come apart once again. Mr. Harlow and I got to work together this time, approaching the problem from Stepper 0. We discovered that Stepper 0 was placed too far from the other components, so we tightened the shaft. After this, the vertical axis was mostly fixed. The only task left was to replace the broken part that I discovered last month. I had used thread glue to hold the three screws on the old part in place, so Mr. Harlow showed me how to use the hot plate to loosen the glue and expand the holes. Once the screws were removed and cleaned, I implemented the new part into the vertical oscillator and inserted the assembly back into the Earthquake Simulator.

While I assumed that the code would run smoothly after those fixes, the homing sensors provided one last roadblock. The program never reached its end when run, so I inspected the physical setup and noticed that the sensor for Stepper 1 was placed too far back to sense the metal. The sensor was in a spot that was difficult to reach, so Mr. PZ and I came up with the solution of using pliers to slowly rotate the sensor closer to the screw (figure 2). Mr. PZ started the process, but I took over and got the sensor closer to the screw. When the sensor became more difficult to rotate, I unscrewed the plate holding it in place and saw that the pliers had ruined some of the threads. After Mr. PZ gave me a replacement sensor, I fixed it in the right spot and screwed the plate back in. Finally, the sensor read as homed (figure 3), and the homing function officially worked on both axes.

DELTAs:
Seeking relevant information: Through my experience with UCSB’s School for Scientific Thought earthquake class, I sought relevant information that could help me implement real-life earthquakes in the Earthquake Simulator. For starters, I learned that earthquakes are measured on three axes of direction (X, Y, Z); because the earthquake simulator only has two (X and Z), I would need to keep that in mind when converting earthquake waveform data.

Collaboration: One class period, both Mr. Harlow and Mr. PZ weren't available to help, so I wasn't able to ask a crucial question and make further progress on my project. Because I couldn't move forward, I decided to make use of my time in another way by offering Sierrah Kendig some help in Electrical. I helped Sierrah with the organization of her space and drafting her performance review paragraphs, making her workload for the day a little lighter.