STEAM Honors Design and Development Senior Capstone Project
Nicholas Becker
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Timeline
Problem
First thing that needs to be asked is what am I solving. I choose to solve the problem of expensive ineffecent water travel
Research
Now that I know my problem I set out to find a solution. I found out that many people own a kayak or paddleboards I used this to my advantage
Prototype One
Now that I know what I can use to help fix my problem I can start to work on how to make it. I started with a flexible shaft from a weed eater to make it so that the propeller sits straight in the water giving it the most thrust.
Professional Reveiw
After the Professional Review I knew I needed to fix things the main problem being effeciently the curved shaft hit the water perfectly but it was weak and robbed power this is why I went to a straight shaft in Prototype Two.
Prototype Two
In prototype two I made it a straight shaft system that could raise and lower so it could go on any paddle board or kayak making it universal and extremely efficient this was an absolutely huge milestone to achive becasue it showed how terrible my first prototype was.
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Expo
The expo night was amazing I got to show off my prototype two to the wonderful people who gave me ideas so that I could improve my prototype one.
Contributers
Mr.Amsler Helped me see how I could make it more effecient so make that battery last longer and make it fast as well. Thank you also to Mr. Hunter that was able to help me when I ran out of ideas.
Project Thoughts and Considerations
My biggest goal at the end of this project was to have a fully working prototype that I could use at my cabin. To get to that point I had to make many prototypes that all had their own problems. My first prototype was super inefficient and the worst part is that it was super fragile. This means that I could have left me stranded halfway across the lake. That is how I knew that I had a lot left to improve on. In prototype two I worked mainly on making it reliable so I didn't have to worry about it leaving me stranded I did that by making less connections. I used the bare minimum of connections I needed this made the middle weak though, I fixed that by using a bearing halfway through the shaft to hold everything in a straight solid line.
My project went through many stages throughout the last 6 months. It started as an idea that I couldn't even sketch out on a piece of paper. I eventually though that a curved shaft will be the best way to do it. I realized after the professional review that I was very wrong. The curved shaft was just too weak for what I was trying to accomplish along with it being inefficient and and hard to adjust. This is when I completely scrapped what I had and had to start over because I was going to have to make it a straight shaft, which was the complete opposite of what I had. I started the new prototype with really old bad wood so that I could basically make a prototype of my finished design without wasting valuable wood. Towards the end of the fourth month I finally "perfected" the prototype and was ready to make it look good as well as perform how I want it to. This is where I waterproofed it and gave it a handle and all the little things to make it feel better and more comfortable.
At the date of the expo everything was in place. the battery box was waterproof to the very top of the battery. The motor had variable speeds. The new 3D printed propeller was holding up great but obviously there are still places to improve on this design. One of which would be making it float. Making it float would also come with making it waterproof. This would mean the controller might be through Bluetooth so that there would be no exposed wires. I would also make the motor mount out of aluminum because the 3D printed plastic was able to bend in just the slightest making the propeller wobbly when spinning.
Challenges
The three main challenges I ran into during the processes was finding a way to make my motor have variable speeds. I spent lots of time researching what I would want to use and finally settled on one which I still didn't know if it was going to work. Once it arrived I had to do some little code on the controller to get it to work with the voltage I was working with, this was a huge pain.
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Another challenge I ran into was durability. it was very hard for me to find places to increase the durability because everything is going a far distance from the input shaft. The way I solved this is by putting a bearing halfway between the propeller and input shaft.
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The last challenge I ran into was that I got super impatient during the start I wanted to start working on it right away but we kept having to do other things before it was time to actually start working on the project. I just had to go with the flow and look for parts during that time so when it was time to start building I would know what I need to do.
Rewarding
One of my most rewarding times in this class was from prototype one. When I was able to 3D print the first propeller and it fit perfectly it made me extremely happy.
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Another time that I felt was super rewarding is when I got the speed controller to work. It worked perfectly it ran from 0-100 way faster than I though that motor was able to spin
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The last and in my opinion the most rewarding time was at the expo. I had just 3D printed a new balanced propeller and just put it in water for the first time and it ran perfectly. I knew the propeller pushed a lot of air but when I saw it able to push just as much water I was ecstatic.
Connecting With The Future
This STEAM experience has been amazing. I helped me look into the future and see how I might be able make great things happen. I taught me that things take tons of time to make. It showed me that I will fail and fail and fail, so as long as I'm making little progress I will be just fine. It set me up for college in that I will will have to learn new things all the time not just to keep up with the ever changing world but also to better myself for future projects.