Pics of Prototype "Beta"

Well done everyone.

1/10 Meeting Update

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

Project Lead

Drill Hole Diagram

Hey guys,

Here is a diagram of the drill holes we have so far in the vertical and horizontal axes. I'll update it as we continue to drill.

Phil

Estimated Battery Life

- Elliot

Lamp Update 11/15

Hey guys,
Here's a summary of tonight's meeting and assignments between now and next week (sorry about the length, pay special attention to the "Assignments" section, it may include things I didn't mention tonight at the meeting).

Tonight Selvan came to his first M-HEAL lamp meeting and he met the team. After introducing him to everyone the engineers left for the Wilson center. Steve, Mustafa, and Naroo brought Selvan up to speed on what we've done for the lamp and what our general goals are. They then discussed the main points that need to be made when approaching Freeplay and similar organizations (demonstrated need via Selvan's experience in Uganda, $40 proven pricepoint from Abigail, advantages of a surgical light over general lighting solutions (lower power consumption due to more focused light, frees up manpower, stability)).
Selvan told us we might be able to field test the lamp in Kumi, Uganda from which he recently returned. One of the problems for the hospital in Kumi is that the generator generates more electricity than is needed and therefore wastes fuel. Due to fuel prices the generator is underutilized and the hospital is frequently without power. The hospital has 350 beds but averages 500 patients at any given time (and up to 750 during malaria season).

Carl, Phil, Mike, and Ling went to the Wilson center and worked on the base. We now have a cage in the Wilson center to put our stuff in. Currently there is still some SF3L stuff in there that allegedly will be removed. Until it is gone please tag anything you put in there with a piece of tape with "M-HEAL" written on it, so it doesn't get thrown away.

Next week the engineers will meet at the Wilson center at 7:30 and the MBAs plus Mustafa will meet at 8:15 in the LBME project room.

Assignments:
Mustafa: Work on NCIIA grant; send me a summary of things we need for the NCIIA grant
Naroo: Work on penta-chart and blurb for clearlyso.com and lightingafrica.com; find out if a MAP project is going to Uganda and contact info for that group
Selvan: Work on penta-chart and blurb for clearlyso.com and lightingafrica.com; contact people in Kumi about testing there
Anita: Talk to Mustafa to see how you can help him on the NCIIA grant

Carl: Continue working on stability calculations with the assistance of Ling ; go to the hardware store with Mike
Ling: Work on stability calculations with Carl
Mike: Write down a drill list for everything except for the up-and-down joint (including the rotation). You'll probably need some sketches and you might have to drop by the Wilson center sometime this week to check what's done (unless you remember it all); go to the hardware store with Carl
Phil: Write down a drill list for the up-and-down joint . Include a sketch to show where the holes are. You might have to drop by the Wilson center sometime this week to check what's done (unless you remember it all). The current sketch you have up looks pretty good except you forgot the "noodle" to change the direction of the cable as it enters the tube.

Elliot: Start preliminary electrical calculations. Look in the lockers in the project room for the packaging for the flashlights we're using. The packaging should tell you the voltage and power consumption. Figure out how long our lamp head should last when connected to a typical motorcycle battery and a typical car battery. Look up general info on handcrank generators and estimate the relationship between crank time and light time.

Please post the results of your assignments to the blog.

If you have any questions or run into any problems, don't hesitate to email me, I'm here to help you.

Steve

Peg Design Sketches

Here is the peg design we came up with at last week's meeting. This drawing doesn't really show how the steel cable connects to the peg, or how the spring connects to the stopper and beam. There are still a few open options for these things.

Phil

Tonight we had a really productive meeting. Here's a summary:

Design Changes:
Main Joint - We fleshed out the idea from last week and are now planning to remove the hinge and instead move the pin in and out directly perpendicular to the hole. We'll try to get as much of the mechanism inside the horizontal pole as possible. We'll be using primarily parts we already have. Phil will post some sketches of the design soon; please look it over and make sure that it matches your mental picture of how things work.

Base - We'll be getting new steel L-brackets to keep the vertical pole steady and we'll replace the brackets underneath the junction with a square plate. This allows the vertical pole to rest on a flat surface instead of on bolt heads. It also simplifies the connections since the square plate can be connected using the same holes as the L-brackets.

Rotation at the Main Joint - We'll follow through with the suggestion that Mike made a bit ago and use a slotted tube on top and a tube on bottom.

Arm Length - We decided to shorten the lamp arm length to 3 ft to make it less ungainly. This will allow us to shorten the counterweight arm considerably.

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I talked to the MBA students who won the Net Impact case competition. They are planning to work with us and are at least some of them are coming to next week's meeting.

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Assignments:
Carl: Eqns for the counterweight and base
Phil: Draw up the base and main joint changes from today's meeting and post it on the blog
Elliot and Mike: Buy parts before Sunday
Ling: Weigh the lamp head
Steve: Write meeting summary, get us 24 hr access to Wilson, find out where our shelves are at Wilson

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Shopping List:
Steel L-brackets, 4"x4"
Square Piece, 8"x8", 1/8"-1/4" thick (check Wilson scrap first)
Various Bolts, 3/4"-1.5"
Eyelets for keeping the noodle in place?
Ferrule

Steve