MidSemester Break(ing) My Prototype

MidSemester break provided a great opportunity to actually go outside and hunt around for materials that would be more suitable to create my prototype out of. After multiple trips to Bunnings and an emergency visit to Big W for a compass set (like high-school all over again) I was ready to get into construction.

Have to make sure you get enough nails. The lazy Susan assembly was the essential part

MDF and Foamcore. Test with one build with the other.

The break also gave me some time to research how I would build it, rather than just blindly rushing into it. I had a quick (in hindsight probably too quick) look at WikiHow and U-Createcrafts tutorials for creating prize spinners. Which heavily inspired my final design.

Then It was time to get building, then testing. Then building a little bit more, then testing a lot more. Then back to building... you get the idea.

Make sure your earthed!

A Quick Test. Would the nails wired together both be earthed?

Testing the MakeyMakey inputs for left and right.

With the first tests completed, I had established that nails would work, I would just need to wire them together, but once this was done the whole wheel could be used as the earth. Meaning that the user would not have to hold onto anything else to make the prototype work. Now it was time to include some more points on the circle.

Initial fail attempt. Which resulted in Compass purchase.

Woah Were Half Way There!

Better check it again to make sure it works at a larger scale.

This is where one of the first lessons came up, and one of the major problems which continued to plague the design process. Needing to ensure that the points on the wheel were not only evenly spaced but the correct with from the center. Working by hand this proved to be difficult as nails dont always do what you want them to when a hammer is viciously applied to them.

I then had a quick experiment with different types of pointers which would make contact with the wheel. Whether to put them internally or externally. How they would be controlled?

Large Central dial

CHAOS

Quick test of having multiple pointers

In the end because of the difficulties in ensuring a consistent distance of nails, I decided it would be easier to have the pointer on the outside of the wheel and have it work more like a wheel of fortune style wheel.

End of Construction Day 1.