Last week we almost finished with the lower part, having already put together the acrylic plastic shapes. I don’t wanna brag but we received a lot of compliments from other teams regarding our acrylic shapes, saying that they look cool and eye catching.
This week we have to finish the upper part of the the whole installation: making the top map, painting the top cover, painting the legs of the installation and assemble them to it as well as integrating the technical part within the installation. This week was also a busy one.
We started off from painting the legs. Even tho last week they were painted, this week we noticed that they have a lot of bumps and not painted evenly. Solution for that was to sand and cut all the bumps and repaint it.
Next step was to finish fully the lower part – glue the acrylic shapes to the base. Since it was really hard to glue it with super glue very neat, we tried to clean it up a little bit. But nor window-cleaner neither acetone helped us, so we glued them as they were hoping that it won’t be that noticeable.
As you read previously we had encountered issues with making the map, as we couldn’t laser-cut such a big piece. We put off the decision of whether to drill holes in the wooden plate since not everyone could recognise the pattern of the map. And our team was not entirely sure either if it would work out or not. For that moment we postponed the map however this week we made the decision of creating a separated, smaller map which would be sitting on the top part, this way we could use the top part for placing the capacitive buttons on (made out of copper tape) and we could use the walls of the map to hide our ultra-sonic sensors in. Thus we proceeded to it, having used thinner wood for the map, laser cutting the map of Enschede of it.
As for the walls we had to cut the margins in exact 60 degrees so we could assemble them together, ending up making the same mistake twice and having a good laugh about it though. We also had to drill holes so we could hide our ultra sonic sensors through. We asked for help from one of our technical team’s guys to drill the holes in the walls for us. TEAM WORK 🙃. We used filler to cover the stitches and the touching points of the map, sanded it nicely and painted it. It turned out really good as not once other teams complimented our job since you couldn’t tell the map is actually stitched from 3 pieces of wood. After we also painted our top part in white.
During the process we had our first demo where the teachers assessed our product and while at it they wanted us to have screwed the legs together to the lower part of the installation. We got caught slightly unprepared and hurried and when trying to screw the first leg, the wood cracked a bit, however we asked Harry for advice and he proposed us to drill a small hole in the leg first and then attach them with the screws. Also we needed to secure legs better, because screwing them only at the bottom wasn’t that safe. With a quite long screws we drilled the legs through the walls securing with small piece of wood from behind.
While at it we decided that we would put the arduino and all soldering boards the technical team made into a separate box, which would be placed next to the installation, having all the wires connecting the buttons fixed on the back legs of the installation. Thus we tried to place the cover of the pedestal through the legs but it didn’t work out from the first try. We had to sand the corners which resulted in some of the acrylic shapes falling off the top part. We fixed it by painting lower part again (because it the crystals also damaged the paint) and gluing them again, this time it fitted perfectly on the lower part. As it is easily removable we can have access to the inside part and place speakers in if needed (it’s not decided yet).
As we are getting closer to the final product, it gets busier and busier and not once we try help the team technic solder wires or buttons if needed. Also, we made a sketch to see how we will integrate all the buttons on the top.
We have created cases for the push buttons which will serve for changing the songs. They will be placed in rectangular prisms. We have also tested the interaction using the copper tape, which resulted in us making the 3 buttons and covering them with copper tape. We laser cut all the parts and painted them according to our palette.
On the last day, Friday we encountered a new issue. In order for the music to be played, the ultra-sonic sensor has to be placed on the front wall so it could detect the person in front of it. However we had our holes drilled on the lateral sides which made it inconvenient for the installation to work as well as presenting it to the teachers. We discussed with the team about what options we had. One of them was making a new map from scratch, but since we were pressured by time we could not afford to lose half a day on making it again. Another one was placing the ultrasonic sensor under the top part and the last option was rotating the map so one of the sides of the walls with already drilled holes would face the front. Out of all 3 we decided to go for the last option since it was easier and time saving. Also we drilled a holes on the top part to be able to hide all the wires down.
We also did not miss the chance to take a break together with the technical team and enjoy our leisure time playing guitar hero.
In order to match with the frame and keep consistency within our project, we laser cut hexagon shapes to decorate the bottom part, as well as laser cut the box for the LEDs. It will be placed next to the front part of the map, helping the user receive a clear response from the installation when touching the buttons as the LEDs light up when doing so.
Also we were planing to laser cut the box for arduino, but it end up quite big, so i wasn’t fitting to the one piece of wood. And since we weren’t happy to spend more money we just decided to make it out of leftovers. It end up kinda ugly, but it will be hidden anyway:p
After the final presentation we received feedback from the teachers, one of the problems was the buttons. There’s a possibility the users won’t be able to recognise them as a button and press on them, thus we laser cut new buttons with the pattern of a fingerprint on it so it would be understandable for anybody. We also had to redesign the talking clouds so they would fit the round shapes of the carved map as well as change the names on the plates from street names to the current artists we have on display. However, the university was closing sooner than usual and the laser cutting machine was fully occupied by other teams. We did not want to lose time over the weekend and found a place to laser cut our pieces, being Twenspace. They even gave us a discount in exchange for promoting them both on our facebook page and at the exhibition by giving out his business cards. That’s how we got a sponsor on the last days of the project 🙂.
And the last thing it’s finishing touches – painting. We painted the nameplates and also the box for LEDs and covered with copper buttons. Also cut the acrylics and glued our windows.
So we are happy to say that at this point we have all the needed parts ready and all what left is to put everything together and our installation will be fully finished.
Project Fat 
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