Week 8 Update

We are 80 percent of the way there and only have 20 percent to go.  When looking at the top of the cliff from the very bottom eight weeks ago, it looked like we would never be able to climb to the top. But we are so close to reaching the top of the wall and ringing the bell if we just reach the right footholds and handholds.  The handholds at the beginning of the week were creating a cost analysis of the kite, cutting off the excess material of the kite, working on the final presentation and design brief, and learning how to the fly the kite.  We managed to begin the cost analysis of the kite this week, cut off the excess material, and start on the final presentation.  We also received our score on the first draft of the design brief.

One of the first tasks we worked on this week was the cost analysis.  We began by making a tally of what we purchased and how much we paid for each item.  We then created an Excel sheet that we were able to input the quantity used of each material, and then the cost of the materials used was calculated.  Table 1 below shows the data from the cost analysis.  This shows that we spent $54.50 on the project and the kite costs $13.62 to build.  We hope to be able to use this data in the future to calculate how much it would cost to mass produce the kite.  Fortunately, we did not have to pay for shipping since Daniel has Amazon Prime.

Table 1 - Cost Analysis

Material	Quantity Purchased	Units	Total Price of all Material	Cost	Per	Quantity Used	Cost of Materials Used
2 mm Carbon Fiber Rods	5	m	$13.95	$2.79	m	2.9	$8.09
ABS Plastic	225	g	$15.00	$0.07	g	18.62	$1.24
Gorilla Tape	1.524	m	$12.99	$8.52	m	0.18	$1.53
Line	121.92	m	$3.56	$0.03	m	20	$0.58
Nylon	1.393	m^2	$8.95	$6.42	m^2	0.33	$2.12
Washer	1	washer	$0.05	$0.05	washer	1	$0.05
		Total Price	$54.50			Total Price	$13.62

Although he was sick this week, Neil was able to begin to work on the slides for the final presentation.  While we do not have much for the slides yet, having the basic framework of the presentation is a good start.  Finishing the presentation is something that has to be completed in the next week.

In the past week, we were able to make small modifications to the kite as well.  We were able to reinforce the connection points of the kite by adding a drop of superglue in each connector to hold the rods in place.  We also decided to cut off the extra material on the nose of the kite, which has led to a more aerodynamic and balanced kite.

Another important thing was that we were able to view our grade on the final design brief and the comments we received from our instructors.  We feel that we are in a good place with the design brief and scored high marks in all but one category for the most part.  The one category that we plan to really push on as we create our final draft, because we got the lowest score on it, was our lack of discussion and technical activities.  If we were to improve these greatly, it could boost our final report almost an entire letter grade.  Another thing that lost us a lot of points was our spelling and grammar.  The easiest fix we can think of for this is just to actually proofread the report before submitting it.

We have one more week until we have to be prepared for our final presentation, which is June 6th in the Innovation Studio.  This week, we managed to do a lot in beginning to prep for the presentation, but we still have a lot to do.  Now that we have a template of the presentation, we have to fill it out and add the information.  We also have to modify the design brief draft, so we can submit our final version and get as high of a grade as possible.  Lastly, we have to decide who is flying the kite, since Neil has gotten pretty good at flying it, along with Daniel.  Once this stuff is done, we will hopefully be able to stick our arm out and ring that bell at the top of the wall.

Week 7 Update

So this is what it feels like to be riding under the "one kilometer to go" sign in the Tour de France on the final stage of the race.  The end is almost near, but we can't quite see the finish yet.  We are in our positions ready to go for the final sprint, where we hope to finish high in the standings.

THIS WEEK, WE FINALLY OUTFITTED THE KITE WITH NYLON SUCCESSFULLY!!!  All of the pieces of the kite were finally printed at the beginning of the week, so we were ready to build.  During class this week, we cut the new diagonal supports and changed out the old connectors for the newly printed connectors.  We then put the new diagonal supports in place.  After this was complete, we then put the nylon on the frame, and attached the lines of the kite to the same places that they were attached on the old design.  After all of this was finished, we ran a few test flights.  The kite was not easy to fly because it kept stalling and nose diving.  This meant that the kite's weight was off-balance.  We again tried to use a penny as a weight, but because of the added material in the design, this did not work.  We then attached a washer to the front of the kite, hoping this would be enough.  As soon as we added the washer, the kite flew like a hawk.  Figure 1 below shows the top view of the kite and the washer attached to the nose of the kite.  Figure 2 below shows the bottom view of the kite.  This figure shows the framing that supports the nylon of the kite.  Based on aesthetics of the kite, we are wondering whether we should move the washer to underneath of the nylon.

Figure 1 - Top View of Second Version of Kite with Nylon

Figure 2 - Bottom View of Second Version of Kite with Nylon

An added bonus about our kite, which we were not expecting, is that it is a fairly good glider.  We discovered this when we ran several experimental practice runs with the kite.  Most stunt kites move quickly and are heavier than most gliding kites, so we did not think gliding was something this kite would be able to do.  Video 1 below is a short clip of the kite gliding.  We believe that the kite could glide pretty far. However, in this clip, the lines of the kite hinder its gliding ability and cut the flight short by keeping the kite tethered.

Video 1 -  Kite Gliding

For the next week, we hope to switch the majority of our focus to tweaking the kite, improving our kite-flying skills, and working on the final presentation.  Last week, we finally outfitted the kite with nylon after switching the design to better suit nylon, which does not bend like the plastic we were first using. While we thought that this would have been the end of the project's building phase, we have come to the conclusion that there is still more work to do.  As you can see from Figure 1, the nylon does not reach to the back points of the kite.  We may have to cut a new piece of nylon to fix this and attach the new piece to the kite.  Also, as visible from Figure 2, there is a lot of excess material at the nose of the kite, which we are planning to trim down.  Daniel also plans to put a few hours in to learn how to fly the kite well.  He has had the most practice testing our designs and is probably the most comfortable with the kite so far.  While it seems like there is a lot of to do in the following week, a lot of the work is small and hopefully will not take long.  The tasks expected to take the longest are learning how to skillfully fly the kite and working on the presentation.  What is good about both of these tasks, though, is that we have until the day of the final presentation of our indoor stunt kite to complete them.

Week 6 Update

There is that part of the race where you get really tired, but you are more then half way done which, leads you to go really slowly.  That is what this week was for us, at least in tangible results.  While we did complete our first draft of our design proposal, we did not get the kite built.

In the first half of this week, digital models of the new connectors needed for the new design were created so that they could then be printed.  Figure 1 shows the 67-degree connectors that connect the vertical rods from the first design to the new diagonal rods in the second design.  Figure 2 shows the new front connector of the kite.  This piece is the same as the front connector for the first design, but now has two more points of connection for the two diagonal supports.  After designing the pieces, two of the 67-degree connectors needed to be printed and one of the front connectors was needed.

Figure 1 - 67-Degree Connector

Figure 2 - Redesigned Front Connector For Diagonal Supports

After designing the pieces on Autodesk Inventor Professional, the two 67-degree connectors were easily printed.  These simple pieces, as apposed to the new front connector, had very few places that could fail, such as overhangs.  The redesigned front connector was more complicated to print, though, because of the odd angles and because all of the connecting pieces did not share the same plane.  Due to the very low availability of the 3-D printers at the Innovation Studio, we decided to print the piece on Daniel's personal computer, which eventually did print it successfully.  Figure 3 below shows the piece just after the print finished, which is still connected to the support structure, and Figure 4 shows the piece without support structure.

Figure 3 - 3-D Printed New Front Connector with Support Structure

Figure 4 - 3-D Printed New Front Connector

Other than printing the pieces, we worked on the final report for the rest of the week, since the pieces were not printed until today.  We feel that we have a good draft to start with for the final report.  A link to the first draft is available here.

Starting from the beginning of Week 7, we have to hit the ground running.  This is now the third week that building the kite and outfitting it with nylon are our focuses.  The issues with the 3-D printers this week set us back one week, so now we are scrambling to finish.  We would like to focus on the actual presentation soon, along with practicing kite flying until one of us gets comfortable, so that we are able to have a cool demonstration as part of our presentation by the end of the week.  Week 6 was the last week we had on our initial schedule for the construction of the kite, but we feel that even though this is not complete we can easily get back on schedule.  Over the next week we also plan to complete the digital drawings of the kite frame. We do not expect to have any issues in the next week as well, so we will most likely stay only one week behind schedule or even get back onto schedule.

Week 5 Update

Imagine this project is Always Dreaming in the Kentucky Derby that was this past Saturday.  He came from behind and ended up winning.  That's what we are doing this week.  After some unforeseen problems, we have been set back, but we will be back in the saddle properly and leading the race again soon.

This week during lab, a few more tests were completed with the kite using the plastic bag.  We tested the newly printed end caps for the kite which helped keep the vertical carbon fiber rods from puncturing the plastic.  This improved the durability of the kite and gave us a place to attach the material on the top of the thin carbon fiber rods.  Because of the low profile of the end caps and the light weight of the end caps the actual performance of the kite seemed to not be affected.  We determined that this was a suitable prototype to outfit with the nylon.

Before starting the outfitting process we took a few measurements.  The first measurement we took was the weight of the kite.  For our first prototype the kite was 25.1 grams.  The other measurements we took were the locations of the bridal points.  The tethers closer to the front of the kite on the diagonal outer pieces of the kite, see Figure 2 from last week, were 12 cm from the front point of the kite.  The tethers farthest from the front of the kite on the diagonal pieces of the kite were located 10 cm from the back corner of the kite.  Lastly, the last set of tethers, on the center piece of the kite, where located all the way at the back of the kite.  We felt that it was important to measure these things be redoing the kite in nylon.

We were then ready to take apart the kite and outfit it with nylon.  The first step was to take off the plastic in the best condition possible to be able to use it as a template for the nylon.  The plastic, removed from the kite is picture in Figure 1 below.  As you can see we were able to remove the plastic in pretty good shape with minimal tares.  We used this template to draw the outline of the needed fabric on the nylon.  After drawing the exact template we then added an inch to each side so that we would be able to fold the kite over along the edges to create a strong connection point to the frame of the kite by creating a pocket for the rods to go through.  We then used a soldering iron to cut out the needed pattern from the yard of nylon that we purchased.  The cut out material is picture in Figure 2.

Figure 1 - Plastic Used to Make First Prototype

Figure 2 - Nylon Cutout for Prototype

After cutting out the nylon it was time to attach it to the kite.  Using gorilla tape to do this it took about 15 minutes to do this.  The fabric was able to be wrapped around and taped to the 3 horizontal carbon fiber rods and taped to the top of the end caps on the vertical rods.  The kite was then outfitted the way the kite was outfitted in the first flight with the plastic that was successful.  Using the nylon though our test flight was not successful and Daniel wishes it was just that his flying skills were a little bit off.  When using the plastic the area from the end caps to the front point of the kite were taunt the entire time.  When we added the nylon though this area became very lose because the nylon put more strain on the frame then the nylon.  The nylon was pulling the vertical rods forward a lot, to the point that the kite was not able to fly.

After being stumped for a little while we were able to come up with a solution though.  We came up with a plan to add two diagonal supports that will run from the front point of the kite up to the top of the vertical carbon fiber rods.  This will keep the vertical rods from having the ability to be pulled forward.  This will also increase the overall rigidity of the kite along with the weight.  The first sketches of this design are pictured below in Figure 3 and Figure 4.  Figure 3 pictures the top view of second prototype while Figure 4 depicts the back view.  As you can see from Figure 3 the back view of the kite does not differ from the first prototype.

Figure 3 - Basic Top View Sketch for Second Design

Figure 4 - Basic Back View Sketch for Second Design

While this week we were not able to complete our primary task of the week, which was to outfit the kite in nylon, we made important steps in the right direction to reach this point.  By adding the two new rods in the kite two more connectors have to be made to connect the vertical carbon fiber rods in the back of the kite to the diagonal supports.  The front connector also has to be redone since there are now five rods going into the front of the kite instead of three.

Next week, we are going to be very busy.  Last week, we started to put together a plan to complete a rough draft of our final design brief, which we have to put into action this week, so that the draft is complete before class next week.  We also plan to create 3D models of the new connectors and print them on either Daniel's or the Innovation Studio's 3D printers.  Hopefully, these will be finished early enough in the week so that we are able to outfit the kite again in nylon.  Since the actual profile of the kite is not changing with the new design, we hope to be able to use the same cut out of the nylon to conserve material.  We do not expect any major problems to arise this week other then having to deal with the limited supply of 3D printers, as more and more groups try to use the printers.  We also didn't get set off of our schedule for the next week and we will remain on schedule unless any nightmares may arise.  Hopefully, this week will be smoother sailing then last week as long as we saddle up, keep it reined in for the next week, and make sure we continue to hoof it till the end.  By doing this we will remain in a stable position to finish the race strong like Always Dreaming did.

Week 4 Update

The Wright brothers had their first successful flight three days after their first crash into the sand.  Sadly, this is where our paths diverge from those that happened in December of 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  But we were close!!! We had our first successful flight four days after our first failed flight.  A short video of our first flight is below in Video 1.  And before you wonder for too long, yes; Daniel did get very dizzy testing the kite.  We are sure Daniel will get even dizzier in the future.

Video 1 - Video of First Flight.

This successful flight was one more flight after our unsuccessful one.  In the second flight, the first after last week's post, the kite was set up the same, except that the bridle connected the two lines from the kite.  Just for clarification, the bridle is the part that connects the single line to the kite in multiple locations.  In this case, since we are working on a two-line kite, there are two bridles.  The points where the bridles were connected is in Figure 1 below.  This design was an improvement over the last try, but still did not work.  It was noticed that whenever one of the two lines would be pulled, the other line would go slack.  This was causing the kite to be off-balance and shift on one side of the kite, driving it into the ground.

Figure 1 - Bridle Points for Second Flight

After the first failed flight of the week, the second of the project, we were stuck so we started brainstorming.  In the second flight, the bridle was going slack on one side when turning, but was working fine when not turning.  We predicted that this happened because there were four points of control when both lines were tight, but only three when turning.  On a hunch, we thought that maybe four were needed to have control.  On this hunch, we attached the bridle as drawn in Figure 2.  You will notice in this picture that there are now three lines, each going into the two lines used to fly the kite.  Using this method, at least four lines of the six attached to the kite will be taut as long as the kite is flying.  It worked! This was the design that was used in Video 1!

Figure 2 - Bridle Points for Third Test

Locating the perfect place on the kite for the bridle points was harder than expected, so it took most of our time this week. Because of this, we were not able to get to the point of outfitting the kite as planned.  This may have saved us from puncturing holes in the nylon though. When testing the kite this week, we noticed that the vertical carbon fiber rods were puncturing holes in the plastic.  In order to fix this, we came up with a cap for the ends of the rods. The caps are smoother than the ends of the carbon fiber rods, and will spread out the force of the rod onto a wider area of the material of the kite.  The 3-D model of the piece is below in Figure 3.  These pieces will hopefully result in no more punctures, but we have not tested them yet.  When printing the pieces, though, it took many print attempts to get the tolerances right.  Because of the long wait for the printers in the Innovation Studio, we had to use Daniel's personal printer.  His printer is not as accurate though, so getting the tolerances right was tough and took many tries.  We even managed to snap a piece of carbon fiber when testing an end cap, since the tolerance was too low.  We eventually were able to print the pieces though.  There is a picture of a completed piece in Figure 4.

Figure 3 - 3-D Model of End Cap

Figure 4 - 3-D Printed End Cap

An updated picture of the kite assembly and drawing from last week's posts, including the end caps, are shown in Figure 5 and in the link here respectively.

Figure 5 - Updated Kite Frame Assembly

This week, we were very productive in finding the correct placement for the bridle points.  We were also right about the problems that we predicted we would encounter.  The attachment of the material proved to be difficult since the carbon fiber was putting holes in the material.  Finding the exact placement of the bridle points was also difficult.  Due to the fact that these two issues took so much time to solve, we were not able to outfit the kite in nylon.  Because of this, outfitting the kite in nylon is the main goal for next week.  We also hope to start putting together an outline of our final presentation and report.  This puts us on schedule for building and testing the kite, but very ahead of schedule in the preparation of the presentation and final report.  We do not expect to encounter many problems next week, so there is a very high likelihood of achieving all of our goals for the next week.