Design Review and Prototype-10/28

October 28, 2013

Deliverable: Design review

Right now we're working on several different things- planning our communication with our community partner in Nicaragua, analyzing our current designs, and brainstorming new ideas from our analyzing.

The new idea du jour is the Upside-down T with Screws Galore:

When we talked to Amy, though, she listed several concerns:

-Screws are best for precise adjustments. Using the screws to adjust for difference in inches will be slow.

-Having the screws near the ground will result in dirt and rocks in the threads.

Thus, we went back to the shower rod idea. We decided we wanted two forms of adjustions: a macro-adjustment mechanism on the bottom, and a micro-adjustment mechanism on the top.

The Bookend Design

We built a cardboard/paper/screw model with a shower rod bottom and a screw top. We have two sides that are reminiscent of bookends

Goals for next class:

-Think about how we can use Nicaragua-local materials.

-Brainstorm ideas for efficient use of shower rod adjustment mechanism.

-Determine the necessary height of the structure (i.e., what distance we need between the bottom adjustment bar and the L-shaped supports.)

-Examine how the wing nuts work in the current design, and apply it to the new design/adjust to optimize top adjustment mechanism.

Community partner questions:

We planned to Skype with our Nicaraguan partners this afternoon, but technical difficulties postponed this opportunity, so Amy is going to email them with our questions. Our questions are as follows:

-- What are the steps you use to use the bike stand?

-- What do you like about the bike stand?

-- What do you dislike about the bike stand?

-- What ideas do you have about improving the bike stand?

-- How important is being able to fold the bike stand? How often do you fold it for transportation/storage?

-- Is there anything else you would like us to know?