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The purpose of this testing was to see how mechanism functions and NOT how well it was able to perform any of the chemical tests. The soil sensor was also not tested, and the boards used to control the mechanism were not tested either. Limit switches were disconnected and the lid to the mechanism was not tested.
The dirt used was gathered in the moment from outside of the SDC. The biggest challenge in gathering this dirt was to not look like a right weirdo stuffing soil into a McMaster-Carr bag... The dirt consisted of organic/fibrous matter and seemed to contain quite a bit more clay than sand. The dirt was also quite most and had the tendency to stick to parts.
To control the 2 DC motors and the shovel servo motor, the dual motor controller that was used in the initial design was used and the buttons on the board where used to control both of the motors. The servo was controlled using an arduino mega and some jank servo code. The mechanism was able to do its task as designed, whilst on life support only (requiring frequent human intervention). Many things jammed or broke or needed a nudge these problems will be discussed after the video of the mechanism working is shown.
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When the dirt is picked up and released, not all of it will make it into the test tube with this design, as a result dirt will end up everywhere. This might not be an issue for future designed, but it looks incredibly unprofessional and risks cross contamination. One potential hazardous location for dirt to end up in is in the bearings or pulleys as shown in one of the images below. This should be considered for future designs.
Sticky Dirt
With the dirt tested, the dirt had a tendency to stick to the inside of the shovel. Otherwise this scoop worked extremely well and reliably, very impressive. In the image below, if you squint you can see that dirt is stuck in the jaws of the shovel.
Geneva Mechanism cam roller
The piece shown below has a setscrew in the side which is used to interface with a D-motor shaft. During testing this piece frequently popped off of the shaft. This is due to the set screw loosening in the plastic. A simple fix would be to switch this part to metal if this design were to be iterated. Another cause for concern would be why did the part pop in the first place? did the mechanism jam? it is difficult to differentiate these phenomena.
