Telescope Project

By this stage we should have completed the pre-building sections outlined here:

Situation: A quick statement giving the background for this project (copy from notes)

Problem: A quick statement giving the problem to be solved (copy from notes)

Analysis: A break down of the problem to identify the parts of the system which will have to be designed. This should take the form of an analysis statement describe what you will need to do to solve this problem (without coming up with a solution!), a system diagram and a description of how each of the subsystems/blocks work together.

Performance Criteria: A numbered list of statements of what your system should do in order to solve the problem effectively.  Copy the first three and then add your own.  For this project break this down into Electrical Control Performance Criteria, Mechanical System Performance Criteria and Overall Performance Criteria.

Ideas: This is the most extensive section. For each of the blocks in your system diagram you need to come up with as many ideas as possible.  Namely the motor control system and the mechanical system.  Here I would expect to see 4 or 5 ideas for the motor control and 4 or 5 ideas for the mechanical system showing a clear development in your ideas.  Each idea should have comments which reference back to the Performance Criteria - "+" points and "-" points which show the suitability for each idea.  Mechanical ideas should include a schematic diagram and Velocity Ratio calculations.  Electronic control ideas could be tested using croc clips and printed off. They should include truth tables as well as the circuit diagrams clearly showing the inputs and outputs you require and which logic gates you need.

Build/Test:  In this section you should answer the questions:

• How did you build your system?
• What equipment did you use (building and testing)?
• How did you test your system?
• What were your results?
• How did this compare to the calculated speed?

You also need to include a schematic diagram of your final mechanical solution, a circuit diagram of your final motor control system (and/or Croc clips simulation), a photo (or two) and all of your calculations clearly showing the Velocity Ratio and the speeds. You will find a croc clips simulation of the transducer driver and relay on the server.  You can add this to the end of your logic simulation for the whole circuit.

Evaluation:  In this section you must evaluate the success of your project/system. 

• Look back at the performance criteria and answer each one in turn, was it successful?  How do you know?  If not why not and what could you do to improve it?  
• Why do you think that your system didn't turn at your calculated speed?  How did you over come this, or what could you do in the future?
• Are there any improvements you could make to your solution as a whole? 

(There must be something you can do to improve, I don't like to see reports which say my system was perfect, or that it fulfilled all the PC.  The more you are honest and write about how it worked or didn't the better a report it will be!)