Reflection (14.11.2014)

Today we presented the final presentation of our technology project-Brake Cooling System in the class. We described every important process of our project in detail and showed the video of our project to the classmates and lecturers. Unfortunately, we made a major mistake in our presentation. We forgot to describe that what is our project and the purpose of our project. Because this is the first time some lecturers had taken our presentation, they did not know what our project is. Thus some lecturers still were confused about our project after the presentation done. This is our major mistake, which will remind us to prevent same mistake from happening again in the future presentation.

Since we determined our technology project, we almost spent one semester time on this project. In this process, I learnt some new knowledge and skills from this project.

Our project can be divided into two parts, the electronic and mechanical. Jin and I are responsible for the mechanical part of the project. In the beginning, I thought that find the suitable components for our project will be very easy, but in fact it was not easy. Before we looked for our components, we already measured and got the approximate dimensions for those components we need. After we got those components and tried to install on that existing project, we found that these components are not very consistent with our requirements. The problem was that we did not consider thoughtfully for the whole project. When we considered about some components dimensions, we did not take into account for another components dimension. So it causes components cannot be installed in the right position, and components are stuck. From this experience of doing technology project, I know that we must carefully consider all aspects of the project and carefully measure the components dimensions before we look for our components. This will reduce trouble and save time for us. I also learnt how to manage the time and money and how to process a project. This will be very helpful for me in the future.

In our project, we also used some knowledge and skills we’ve learned before, from the Brake class and Electrical and Electronic class. In our project, we must consider the temperature of brake failure or brake fade. We found the brake failure temperature by searching some books and internet. Then we should allow our project to spray water mist throughout the ventilated rotor to cool the brake rotor temperature down before it reached the warning temperature. By using some knowledge we learnt before, we use the formula to calculate the amount of water the nozzle need to spray, this allowed us to choose right tank. We generally responsible for mechanical, but we also participated in the electronic section. We need to connect a lot of electronic components in the circuit board, such as transistor, temperature sensor, LED and so on. These we learnt from Electronic and Electrical class.

For the personal limitations, I think I am good at on the time management. Our project has been successfully completed one week before final presentation start. But in the progress of the project, I also exposed many personal limitations. We only can apply some simple formula to calculate the data, it will cause some error. The project will be not very perfect. To edit program cost us a lot of time, because we do not very good at programming. We also do not well at electronic. We wasted about 80 dollars in some useless components, because we do not plan our project well.

To do this project gave us many experiences, we consolidate the knowledge we learnt before and we also learned new knowledge and capabilities, and apply them to our project. In the future, I need to learn more knowledge about electronic, which will be very benefit for my next year course.

In the end, I am very grateful to Roman and Simon to give us help.

Week 16 (11.07)

In this Wednesday, we solved that problem and tested our project in the car.It is pretty well.The sensor monitored the brake rotor temperature, when the rotor temperature is higher than the upper operating temperature limit, the warning light flashed to warn the dirver. After a few second delay, the pump start to spray water mist passing through vent of rotor to cool the brake rotor.When we was heating the brake rotor, we used infrared temperature gun to monitor the brake temeprature compared with our sensor monitoring reading. We took the video for whole testing process, we will present the video in the final presentation.

On Friday, we handed in our final technical report.

Week 15 (10.31)

This week, everyone completed their blogger presentation in the class. I presented how our group would proceed the project week by week. I talked about every challenge we encountered and the solution we used.

For our prject, we still got some problem with the connection of Arduino board and pump. We made programme for the connection with pump and board,but the programme may get some problems. When we tried to start the project, the pump doesnot work.We asked Simon to help us solve this problem. Fortunately, Simon solved this problem for us, the pump was working.Thanks so much to Simon to help us solving this prolbem. In the afternoon, our group went to the workshop to test our project.When we tested our project out of car,the project got some problems. The pump doesnot have enough pressure to spray the water. The spray is so weak,it does not look like water mist.We thought the supply voltage is not enough to make pump working perfectly. We tried to fix this problem in the workshop, but we did not succeed to fix this problem. Then we ended the work, and we will solved this problem later.

 

Week 14 (10.24)

This week, we still have not found a suitable brake rotor for our project. So Jin and Jong decided to use their own car to test our project, because their cars use ventilated brake rotors. In Friday afternoon, we had checked the vehicle to make sure whether they meet our requirement.We checked Jin's car first, his car is not very suitable for our project. This is not enough space to install our nozzle and sensor.When we checked Joing's car, we find a hole on the dust shield. It looks very good for our project, it allows us to install our nozzle there.

 

We bought some nozzle for garden using, but Roman said the water spray droplet size is too big for our project.So we have to find smaller one.

Week 13 (10.17)

This week, the rest of groups completed the second stage presentation to the class.After the presentation, each group went to meet their technical advisor to discuss their technology project. Our groups talked to Roman about the latest progress of our project. Then we met in the workshop at 1 o'clock. Roman already grind the brake caliper and rotor for us.

 

Then we started to clean up the old lubricant and rust on the our brake caliper. After the clean, we put the new lubricant inside the brake caliper to make sure it working smoothly.After we finished those things, we try to install the brake rotor and brake caliper in that car. But we find the inner diameter is smaller than the hub and bearing. Then we decide to grind the edge of inner brake rotor a little bit. After grind the brake rotor, it is still not fit with hub and bearing. Then, we decide to use another Holeden brake rotor. This brake rotor holes is not fitting with bolts. So we have to drill five new holes on this brake rotor. When we try to install this one on the car. It is still not fitting, the inner diameter is still too narrow. Finally, we give up to test our project on this testing car.

 We go to another workshop to check the Range Rover car whether it is meet our requirement.After we checked, we think this car should be meet our requirement.But the best choice still is to find a suitable new second brake rotor, that should be easier for us. If we cannot find new brake rotor, we are going to test our project in the Range Rover.

Week 12 (10.10)

Today, we did our technology project presentation stage two in the class, the lecturers said we did pretty good in the presentation stage two.We are very happy to hear that.Our groups made an appointment with Roman. We were going to workshop to test our brake rotor and caliper in this afternoon. When we try to install brake rotor to that test car, we find it is not very suitable. But, we can grind a little bit brake rotor to match that test car.And also we have to grind the brake caliper a little bit. So we went to welding room to find machine and tools to grind the caliper and rotor. But we did not find the suitable tools to grind brake rotor, we just leave it till next Monday. Roman help us to grind the brake caliper, but it still not finished. That machine can not grind the caliper very well. We just leave them till next week. We have to ask welding class teacher to get suitable machine and tools to grind them.

 

Week 11 (10.03)

This is second week of our semester break, we did not do many things in this week. Because we have to find a Panel and Paint Workshop for our Body System assignment.In this week, our group members meet twice to discuss our technology project in the library. Jong fix the Board problem which happened before, now the Arduino board works well.Jin and I want to calculate how much water do we need for this project.If we want to know how much water do we need, we must know the Energy Tranferred when car brakes.We want to use this formula to calculate the energy tranferred.Then we can get how much water we need.

Q = m c △T

Q = energy transferred (J)

m = mass of substance (kg)

c = specific heat capacity

△T = temperature change (K or ℃）

Week 10 (9.26)

This is the beginning of first week of semester break, our group members still focus on our technology project.We have many things to do during the holidays.Last Friday, we find a Honda car caliper and brake rotor in the Pick A Part.We measured the bolt hole distance in the test car, it is matched to test car bolt position. Finally, we get our caliper and brake rotor. It is a good news for us.

 

We also do our electronic part in the library. Jong already bought every electronic parts we need, like LED light, resistance, transistor, board and battery.We guys build our project board, but it is not like we thought it would work.We try to make light turning on one by one when the temperature sensor detected different temperature.But, when we connect the board to the battery, the LED light just flash together, it is not working one by one. We think that it may be a problem about potentiometer.After we check the potentiometer,we think it is not a problem about potentiometer, it should be a problem about the  programme.But we can not fix this problem now.We have to ask Simon after the break.

Week 9 (9.19)

It is the last class before second semester mid break start. Today, our class was finished very early.  But many classmates still stayed in the classroom. Those groups were going to discuss their technologies with Roman and Simon respectively, our group also. Jong already got his Arduino kit from Trademe seller.He discussed with Simon about our project- brake cooling system, and Simon gave us a lot of help. Meanwhile， Jin and I got a bad news about our project, the lecturer who use that existed project did not allow us to grind the brake caliper.So we had to get a new second hand brake caliper for our project.In the afternoon, Jong,Jin and I went to the Pick A Part to look for a new suitable brake caliper and rotor.

We looked for a suitable ventilated rotor and caliper in the whole yard. We checked more than 10 scarp car, but the size of  brake rotors is not suitable for our project. Finally, we find a Honda car had a similar size brake rotor and caliper. We went to take this one for our project.We checked the rotor size and caliper size, it is very suitable except the distance of two  bolt holes. I had not check the holes distance before. So, we just hide this brake caliper and rotor first. Then, we want go to workshop again to measure the distance of two bolt holes. If that rotor bolt holes is match to the bolt distance, we will go back to Pick A Part to buy them.

Week 8 (9.12)

This Friday, the remaining two groups had presented their presentation of stage one in the class.After the presentations,most of groups stayed in the class and discussed the latest stage of their project with the technical advisor. Our group went to the workshop with Roman this friday afternoon. We measured the values of the rotor and brake caliper.We decided the position where we can place our temperature sensor and nozzle.The caliper gap is too narrow for our chosen ventilated rotor.There are two solutions can be chosen to solve this problem. The first way is that we can find a suitable caliper to match the ventilated rotor and whole existed project. But this way may take us a lot of time. Second way is that we can grind the brake caliper to increase the gap. This can allow us to fit the ventilated rotor in the existed project to test our project.But we should ask the lecturer who owned that project first. The picture below shows the way we are going to grind the brake caliper.

Week 7 (9.05)

Every group presented the Stage one of project demonstration to the class yesterday. The stage one is about what have we done after the initial report and presentation. My group presented all the things we have done, including the components, design, technical information and calculations. We also describe the further steps we are going to do. The big problem troubling us is the component price. We have to use the temperature sensors to monitor the temperature of brake rotor in our project. But, the brand new one price is around USD 200 to USD 300.It is too expensive for us, obviously we can not afford.Roman suggested us to look for a second hand temperature sensors. Or we can buy a cheap non-contact infrared temperature sensor for our project.The infrared temperature sensor is cheap, the price is around NZD 15 to NZD 30 on the Ebay.The problem is that how can we get the signal from this sensor.

Week 6 (8.29)

In this week, I had learned Solid works and ArDuino with Gerry and Simon.The Solid works is not easy to learn, it is hard for me who first time to use it. But, I think it is pretty useful. The Solid works can help us to do our technology project. We can draw the prototype by using Solid works before our groups finished the project.This prototype allows us to present the detail of our project to our lecturer. We may find some prolbems in our project when we do the prototype by Solid works.Arduino is another software we have to learn. We have to use the Arduino in our technology project.It is very important for our project. On Wednesday, We measure the rotor size and caliper in the workshop with Roman, we should find a suitable ventilated rotor for our project. If the rotor is oversize, we cannot test our project on that car. Our group need use pump and nozzle on our project,I searched some products and information on the internet. There are many products sell on the Ebay and Trademe, I still consider which one is suitable for our project. In addition, we are preparing the Stage one of the Project Demonstration to present to class next Friday.

Here is some Pump I find.But, I am still considering the pump  how many pressures do we need for our project.

Water Pressure 5 Bar

Max flow 500L/H

Max flow: 4L/MIN

Water pressure： N/A

Water flow: 3L/min

Water pressure: 0.7Mpa

Week 5 (8.22) Technology project

In the end, we still have not figured out a proper idea for our project. So our lecturer Roman suggest us to rebuild and innovate an old project.Our new project is based on that old project, but we will add new parts into the project.The project is to detect the temperature of the car brake rotors. If the brake rotor temperature is higher than the warning temperature value, it will give the driver a audible warning and show the rotor temperature to the driver. If the driver does not take any action to cool the car rotors, the system will automatically spray water through the ventilated brake rotor to reduce the brake temperature.We have four people in one group, two of us will do the electronic parts, others will do mechanical parts. I think we have a lot of tasks have to be done. We need to search relevant information about our project, to decide what kind of pump and nozzle is suitable for our project.So we have to work hard for our project.

Week 4 (8.15)

On Friday, we had presented our presentation to the lecturers and classmates in the classroom. Unfortunately, our project did not get the lecturers's approval. Roman and Simon said that our idea is very good, but this project is very difficult for our level of knowledge. We did not have enough knowledge and experences to solve this problem. The lecturers advise us to choose a new idea for our project. It may better for us.Now we want to do a project about brake system, it will not involve too much knowledge about electronic, it is may easy for us.

Week 3 (8.08)

Our idea have approved by the lecturer Roman. Starting from today, we can going to do our project. Next Friday, we have to present our initial report and presentation. We have to show more details about our idea to the lecturers and classmates. So, we'd better to start to prepare our initial report and presentation. 

Week 2 (8.01)

Most of us identify their problems related automotive industry and show their ideas to solve those problems for their own technology project. Some ideas have been approved by our lecturers. My group still has not found any appropriate problems and solutions for our technology project. We got some ideas before. After we search for relevant information about the ideas, we find most ideas that we got is already used in some latest models vehicles. So we just gave up those ideas. And also some ideas cannot be solved by the level of our knowledge. We must identify other problems and ideas as soon as possible. 

Week 1(7.25) Technology Project

This is our first “technology projects” class, everything about this course are very fresh for us. We never touched it before. In the first lesson, the lecturer explains to us the overview and purpose of our subject and related assessment details. The technology project course is to ask us to solve a problem on the automotive industry with our own ideas and solutions. We can make our team consisting of two people. We have to think about some problems about the automotive industry, and select an appropriate problem for our technology project. In addition, we also need to choose a relevant field of technical advisor to help us complete this technology project.

To find a problem and put forward our own solutions which is obviously not a simple matter. My teammate and I are still thinking about and identify our problems on automotive industry to as our subject of technology project. It is very hard for us, but we still need to choose our problems and solutions quickly.