Week 8: After Break

After a week of catching up on sleep, I'm back at college to continue the autonomous watering pot. I kicked off my return by narrowing down a stable power supply to use for the project. Currently my options are an AC power adapter, a 6 pack battery extension, or a vex rechargeable battery. I started by testing the run time of the pump based on what power supply it was given. When I started testing out the power supplies however, the pump ran into complications. After approx. 45 seconds, the pump would reverse its charge and start taking water instead of releasing it.

Thanks to one of my fellow STEM scholars, I was later told it was attributed to a lack of air in the container. As water was pumped out of the supply, so was air. It would hit a point where the change in pressure makes the pump unable to continue, so it instead does the opposite to take in air. With a well placed air hole, the pump was now running and we were able to test all supplies. It is likely that we will use the vex battery as it is rechargeable.

Update: Below are the CAD models I had been working on. I will most likely not print these out ,but instead use them as reference to create a model out of recycled materials.