A Change in Direction

This past week has been busy, busy, busy! Not only did the direction of my project change, but I was also brought together, once again, with an old nemesis of mine: Physics. Confused? Ok, let me take a step back and tell you what happened with my project. On Tuesday February 24th, I went into Dr. LaBelle's office to discuss what I was going to be doing in the lab that week. When I stepped into the office, he said he found a project for me to work on. In my head, I'm like, "Ok. Cool. I can do this. Wait, will I know anything about the topic?" Notebook in hand, I sat down and got to taking notes. And here I met my nemesis, Physics. Throughout the entire conversation, the only words I got across my mind from my 3 pages of notes were pressure sensor and circuit board design.  So after that meeting, I went straight to my sister-- who previously worked on this project-- to ask her to explain the entirety of the project.

MY NEW PROJECT

My new project is to build a pressure sensor with a team of other individuals in the lab. Now what is a pressure sensor? Exactly what is sound like, it is an instrument that detects changes in pressure when someone applies it. It can calculate pressure and then one can look at the contour of pressure over a certain area. Of course, I'm not making the entire thing. So what is my part in this project? Well, earlier I said I understood 2 outcomes from the meeting I had with Dr. LaBelle: a pressure sensor and a circuit board design. And the later is my designated part in the project. I am to make a circuit board design for the pressure sensor.

What does a pressure sensor look like? Now I could describe it to you, but then things get far too confusing and wordy. Instead I will show you. Below are pictures of a previously made pressure sensor. Now the pressure sensor I am working on will have a different design of the cooper wiring you see below. The wires will be much much smaller and more of them.

This is a 6x6 model of the pressure sensor. As you can see there are a lot of wiring sticking out everywhere, which is a challenge the lab is trying to fix.   

This is the bottom of the pressure sensor.

As you can see the lab had to attach wires to each cube of the 6x6 for the circuit to be complete.
(This is the underside of the picture above)
 

This is the middle layer of the pressure sensor. It is nonconductive foam. Within in each cube there is a circle cut out so the lab could put conductive foam in, this is to ensure top and the bottom circuit board would connect.  

This week I spent a lot of time with Dr. LaBelle reviewing and redesigning the wires. Below is the final copy of what the circuit board design will look like. It may not look like it took a long time to make, but I assure you it took a solid 2 hours of my time to get the correct number of lines, spacing, and configuring done. But that's what happens when you aren't tech savvy I guess.   

I'll show you guys the final product once the lab and I finish it! If you guys have any questions, ask in the comment section below. Until next time guys!

- Tina

PS. I wanted to send a special thanks to my sister who helped me out a lot this week. Especially when I would ask her such silly and out of the blue questions when she had to do work. THANKS VICKI! <3