Sorry about the long post, but make sure to read all of it (and not just skim through). We had a nice and productive meeting today, the beta prototype is pretty much done. We had to stabilize the peg and mess with the wire tension, but it is pretty solid. The only things we need to do next week are to cut down the counterweight arm, attach the counterweight, and figure out a way to easily adjust the wire tension.
Here's some random things to consider for the future that we discussed today:
- we can shorten the vertical pole by ~6", this will make the lamp less ungainly and will mean it will take fewer bike frame pieces welded together to make
- it would be nice if we could program some of the stuff for the CNC machine so we get nicely done holes (after we have a good design figured out)
- we need a stiffer base, the current one bounces a little
- we need to redesign the "helicopter" joint, the current one is too unstable and sensitive
- we need to redesign the head to make it lighter/easier to assemble (possible use of zip ties instead of pipe fitters)
- we need to know what bikes in our target countries look like (are they single/multi speed, do they have breaks, do they have pedals and chains, etc)
- making it out of primarily bike parts is going to be hard
M-HEAL Development Weekend:
For those of you who I haven't told yet, M-HEAL is planning to have a weekend where all the project teams spend the majority of the weekend working on their projects. We'll probably start Saturday late morning and end Sunday evening. With those thirty-odd hours we should be able to get a ton of work done. Right now we're tentatively thinking of having it either the last weekend of January or the first weekend of February. What weekend do people prefer? I'll probably send out another email about this tomorrow after the officers' meeting.
Lamp Meeting Time:
Please fill out when you are free for a lamp meeting here http://whenisgood.net/a4yzs8
Wilson Center Training:
We're going to need alot of training before Dev Weekend. At the very least everyone needs to take either milling or welding training and we should have one or two people who do lathe training. The Wilson Center people still don't have January training up on their website yet so to set up a training time email the relavant person on the Wilson Center training page (http://www.engin.umich.edu/teamprojects/About/training.html) and try to set up a time. Everyone should strive to get one training session in this week and one in next week. Please email the list to say what training you're planning to do so that we get a good mix of skills.
Stuff to do before the Next Meeting:
Everyone: Please read Abigail's thesis pages 64-69 and 109-110 for some background info (link: http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/63801)
Engineers: Schedule a training this week
Anita and Selvan: Look into the structure of the Ugandan healthcare system and what is normally done at each level (ie local clinics, regional hospitals, major hospitals) Abigail's thesis might be useful as a starting point
Naroo: Make a penta-chart for our pitch
Mustafa: Find out what the major procedures are in Uganda that might require a surgical lamp and how many are done
Brian: Look into electricity availability and use in Uganda, Abigail's thesis might be a useful place to start
As always, if you run into any issues or have any questions shoot me an email. If you're having trouble trying to find some information be sure to cc the lamp list; someone on the team might know someone you can talk to (or know where to find some resource). As you find out information please post it here on the blog.
Steve
Here's some random things to consider for the future that we discussed today:
- we can shorten the vertical pole by ~6", this will make the lamp less ungainly and will mean it will take fewer bike frame pieces welded together to make
- it would be nice if we could program some of the stuff for the CNC machine so we get nicely done holes (after we have a good design figured out)
- we need a stiffer base, the current one bounces a little
- we need to redesign the "helicopter" joint, the current one is too unstable and sensitive
- we need to redesign the head to make it lighter/easier to assemble (possible use of zip ties instead of pipe fitters)
- we need to know what bikes in our target countries look like (are they single/multi speed, do they have breaks, do they have pedals and chains, etc)
- making it out of primarily bike parts is going to be hard
M-HEAL Development Weekend:
For those of you who I haven't told yet, M-HEAL is planning to have a weekend where all the project teams spend the majority of the weekend working on their projects. We'll probably start Saturday late morning and end Sunday evening. With those thirty-odd hours we should be able to get a ton of work done. Right now we're tentatively thinking of having it either the last weekend of January or the first weekend of February. What weekend do people prefer? I'll probably send out another email about this tomorrow after the officers' meeting.
Lamp Meeting Time:
Please fill out when you are free for a lamp meeting here http://whenisgood.net/a4yzs8
Wilson Center Training:
We're going to need alot of training before Dev Weekend. At the very least everyone needs to take either milling or welding training and we should have one or two people who do lathe training. The Wilson Center people still don't have January training up on their website yet so to set up a training time email the relavant person on the Wilson Center training page (http://www.engin.umich.edu/teamprojects/About/training.html) and try to set up a time. Everyone should strive to get one training session in this week and one in next week. Please email the list to say what training you're planning to do so that we get a good mix of skills.
Stuff to do before the Next Meeting:
Everyone: Please read Abigail's thesis pages 64-69 and 109-110 for some background info (link: http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/63801)
Engineers: Schedule a training this week
Anita and Selvan: Look into the structure of the Ugandan healthcare system and what is normally done at each level (ie local clinics, regional hospitals, major hospitals) Abigail's thesis might be useful as a starting point
Naroo: Make a penta-chart for our pitch
Mustafa: Find out what the major procedures are in Uganda that might require a surgical lamp and how many are done
Brian: Look into electricity availability and use in Uganda, Abigail's thesis might be a useful place to start
As always, if you run into any issues or have any questions shoot me an email. If you're having trouble trying to find some information be sure to cc the lamp list; someone on the team might know someone you can talk to (or know where to find some resource). As you find out information please post it here on the blog.
Steve
Project Lead
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