Day 08 - CAD Introduction

Today we're going to attempt to learn to use TinkerCad to design a needed component for our electromagnetism challenge. As you will recall, you voted to make a portable generator. I have purchased some electric motors we can reverse to use as dynamos. A dynamo is a type of generator that converts movement into electricity. The problem with these motors is that they do not have a collar for their spindles, which means inputting movement will be difficult. To solve that, we need to design and build collars. We'll try using either a 3D printer or a laser cutter to achieve our results (I suspect the laser cutter is the way to go, but we shall see). Regardless, we'll need a computer-generated model of the part we want to manufacture.

Ideally, we'd be using Inventor software to make these computer models, but the computers in my room will not have that software installed until January. Which means if we want to keep going with the current project we need to try an alternative. TinkerCad may well get us there, so we're going to give it a shot.

Before jumping into TinkerCad, we'll distribute the motors so you can form teams and get a sense for what we need to add to the motors. There are 8 motors, which means that if a team of 4 wanted to break into two teams of 2, we can probably accommodate that for this project. Write your team name on a piece of tape and put that tape on the side of your motor. I'll store the motors in a box until we're ready to work with them again.

Once that is out of the way it is time to go into TinkerCad to get going on the tutorial for today. To find it, clink on the Learn link and then tutorial link for the Move Circuit Assembly. Follow the instructions step-by-step; help each other out as you progress - do not leave teammates behind!

coil

a layered loop of conductive material (such as copper); current through this loop will produce a magnetic field

commutator

a cylinder with a break in it such that as it spins it keeps breaking the circuit for a moment to allow a reversal of current

current

in electronics, it is the movement of electrons through a circuit; this movement can be direct (flow) or alternating (vibration)

dynamo

a generator that converts movement (mechanical energy) into electricity (electrical energy)

electromagnetism

the physics invovled with the flow of electrons and their magnetic fields

generator

in engineering, a generator is any device that outputs energy in a specific form (often electricity)

magnetic field

the accumulation of force from millions of electrons aligned in the same direction, making the substance behave like an ionic element