Music of the Light, Part IV: Looks-Like Model

The task: Create a "looks-like" model of the music box.
We approached this first with Jamie's awesome sketching prowess:
The works-like model, with inside parts (inset):

This "works-like" sketch includes the axle (with Lego wheels, attached to the motor), top inset; the motor, bottom inset; the RDS cricket, the middle circuitboard-like box; the LED, far right box; the photo cell array, set of Legos with wires in the bottom right; and the speaker (cylinder-like shape), bottom left.

Comparing various designs for the overall shape of the music box--sketches having the motor on the outside:

Close-up on the Pico-type LED (we can affix it by nails, glue, or tape, depending on how sturdy/disassemblable the final deliverable should be):

Detailed drawing of the final design:

We will have a main box, which contains everything (motherboard, motor, and speaker), with a light sensor box on top to contain all the photo cells and the LED; wires will feed out of the photo cell box and through a hole back into the main box to minimize mess and prevent wires from interfering with the paper-feeding mechanism.

2-D parts for the main large box:

Top: front or back of the box; notches will help stabilize the walls; the hole on the right and indent on the left are to hold in the scrolls of music.

2-D parts for the small box to contain and shade the photo cells:

The small pieces (top) are the left and right sides (in the same plane as the front and back of the main box); the long pieces are the front, back, and top of the box (middle, left to right); the small piece at the bottom is a shelf to hold the LED in place.

Another sketch of the box, with motor/motherboard on the side, inside or out:

We had a fair amount of discussion about which parts, if any, should be outside the box.  We wanted to consider aesthetics (we needed a "finished-looking" product), coolness (everyone felt that motherboards/electrical connections were neat), safety/sturdiness (we didn't want someone accidentally pulling off an important part and/or leaking toxic chemicals everywhere), and take-apart-able-ness (since we borrowed a motherboard from the SciBorg, and knew it and probably many other parts would need to be returned).  Eventually, we settled on a compromise: we would put the motherboard flat on the bottom of the box in a drawer which could be slid in and out of the larger box; various holes would feed the photo cell wires into the box around the scrolls to contain everything (we'll wrap the wires in electrical tape and/or heat shrink for organization and a classier appearance).  We plant to build the main body and photo cell array box out of wood; the scrolls will be Legos (as shown in the works-like model), and will fit into holes in the main body (see below).

Next, we put everything into SolidWorks, worked out a few kinks, and added dimensions:
The main box (mostly Jamie's creation):
 The bottom of the box (the corners are notched for increased stability and ease of assembly):

The side (the large rectangle missing from the middle is where the drawer fits in, the hole and notch are for the two scrolls):

The front of the drawer (prototype drawing--the full circle was really a half circle cut out of the front):

The side of the drawer:

The light sensor box (I mostly worked on this):

One short side (round hole for the photo cell wires to come out, large rectangular hole for the Lego photo cells to fit in, small notches to fit in with other parts):

The other short side (no wires will come out this one, so no round hole):

The front long side (pegs to connect to the short sides):

 The back long side (pegs to connect to the short sides, rectangular hole to hold the LED):

The top of the photo cell box:

 This SolidWorks took a ridiculous amount of time because I kept having problems like this:

As you can (maybe just barely) see, the lines outlining the peg are just a hair not vertical.  This happened with most of the parts I was trying to use to assemble, so I had to redo almost all of them from scratch. (We're not sure quite what happened, but if I were to hazard a guess I would say that when drawing things on a tablet it is difficult to get lines perfectly vertical.  Several hours of methodical work eventually fixed this though, and I was able to assemble the light sensor box!)

Assembly of the main box and the light sensor box:

The light sensor box:






It's beautiful!

The main box:

We needed some holes for the wires to connect from the photo cell array (which will sit on top of the main body) down to the motherboard (on the drawer in the bottom of the box).  Jamie had the clever idea to add some stems and thus turn the holes into music notes, which we thought was wonderfully aesthetically pleasing!  We used some pegs to ensure a snug fit and to allow for easier assembly, but most of the joining will be with small nails.
Alas, my elation was short-lived.  It turns out that the light sensor box that I spent umpteen hours troubleshooting and finally assembling in SolidWorks is not actually the design we're going to build.  We all regret the uncommunication of a significant change of plans.  However, my work was not completely useless, as I was now very comfortable with SolidWorks, and the new design had only slightly modified parts.  The new design is much sleeker, with the photo cell box fused to the main body box:

The small little L-shaped pieces are to be glued into the four small rectangular holes in the photo cell array, which will help to affix the pieces and join everything together nicely, to hold up the array of Lego-mounted photo cells (suspended in the top box), and also to guide the paper in the scrolls to feed very straight into the photo cell array.

The new design is very similar to the old; the only real change is the fusion of the light box with the main body of the box.  This much sleeker idea changed just the front and back pieces--we added a top bit to be the side of the light sensor box.  We also cut out a few holes for the small L pieces, which will serve a variety of very useful purposes.

I wish I could have helped assemble the right project files!  We now realize the importance of group communication and plan to schedule times when all of us can meet to work on the project together, and each of us will be sure to email the other group members when they're working on something or whenever they've discovered important new information or had an awesome idea.  Hopefully this will prevent further unhelpful hours spent fighting with SolidWorks!

We'll print out all the parts for the new design on Friday, and glue and nail them together to start testing the first real iteration of looks-like and works-like Music of the Light!