CAKEBOT: Sprint Review II

Leading up to the second Design Review, CakeBot team attacked our project with a vengeance, ordering supplies for the frosting dispenser asap and building the frame for it, searching for new motors and drivers to build the actuators for nozzle and platform movement.

Cassie and Emily, once the orders came in, worked on modifying the Wilton Decorator Pro to attach to a DC motor for up-and-down movement, i.e. pressure on the frosting container. Another stepper motor, compatible with the Adafruit Motorshield, was ordered and integrated by using a belt to move the nozzle/dispenser across the radius of the cake. Griffin and I also ordered a separate stepper driver from Pololu to drive the Rotating Platform's "high-current" stepper motor.

In testing our apparatus, with a finally-mounted Decorator Pro, we were able to observe three mechanisms:

  • Extruding the frosting to create a border: The DC motor moves the plunger downwards at a constant rate while the platform rotates at a constant speed, underneath the fixed dispenser, to create a circular border.
  • Moving the dispenser to form a spiral in the center: The DC motor moves downwards at a constant rate; the dispenser moves in-and-out at increasing gaps; while the platform rotates at a constant speed.
  • Re-loading frosting in the storage compartment:  After moving the DC motor to pull the plunger upwards, we detach the dispenser and reload the frosting into the storage.
After several successful rounds, the mechanical bearings of the rotating platform that are attached to the stepper motor's shaft became loose -- and the platform was no longer able to rotate properly without taking it apart completely. Fortunately, we were able to video-tape the testing rounds to display in our Design Review 2 presentation. Things are looking up!

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