As a group we have been assigned a project to design an automatic coin dispenser. The device that we come up with has to be capable of holding 100 U.S. coins. Our goal with our device is to dispense twenty coins in two minutes. The main categories our group will be graded on are things like: speed, cost, ease of use, and ease of manufacturing. We had approximately two weeks to come up with a design, build our design, and get the device to work adequately. The device should be small in size (should fit in a 15’x15’x15’ box), portable, easy to operate, easy to manufacture in mass quantities, and safe. The total budget given to your design team for the prototype is less than or equal to $15. After the group came up with some ideas, we had to brainstorm and figure out which design would work the best. We knew we wanted to use spring-loaded buttons, and we wanted to use our Lego components. After thinking and building different designs with the Legos, we came up with what we felt was the best design for the project. Building four tubes that would hold each coin was part of our problem in the beginning because we were not sure what material to use. Once we found that thin cardboard worked well to make the tubes for the coins, we mounted the coin tubes on top of our device. Basically our first design was the design we went with, but as we went along we would slightly modify it if we felt we could make it better.We had to find out the different coin sizes and thickness. We had build tubes that were long enough to hold 25 coins in each, and the machine itself had to be able to dispense one coin at a time with some sort of button or lever. We found out how big the coins were and how thick each were, and we built tubes that were long enough to hold the amount of coins necessary in each. We built spring- loaded buttons that were attached to our device with Lego components, and our entire device was made up of predominately Legos. The only scientific theory we found useful in the process of building our device was gravity. Gravity is the force we use whenever our coins are dispensed. Limitations and boundaries that are a part of this project are the amount of coins that can be held at one time, and other limitations and boundaries are the number of coins you can dispense at once. Only 100 coins can be held at one point in time in the device, and only one of each coin can be dispensed at a time. The size restriction and price limit is another limitation that we ran into. We got around all of these problems by building a device that was the proper size, using cheap but reliable materials, and we only wanted it to hold 100 coins and dispense one at a time.
3. Solution
We came up with a solution method by making a proper device that could finish the job at hand adequately. The solution we came up with was a device that had differently sized tubes mounted at the top with openings at the top and bottom. The bottom of the tubes are enclosed with the platform the tubes are mounted on. The tubes have slots cut into each side that dispense the coins whenever the spring-loaded buttons are pushed. Once dispensed the coins fall off the edge and slide down the inclined backboard onto the table the device is sitting on. The device is made predominately of Lego components, and cardboard is also used to cover the inclined backboard and to form the tubes. The tubes are held together by duct tape, and we also use springs out of ballpoint pens to make the buttons spring loaded. All of the problems we had from the beginning of the project were fixed with simple trial and error sessions. We never faced any extensive problems, and our first design is the design we used with some slight modifications throughout the building process. The total cost of our project was approximately $2.50. We used four ballpoint pens for their springs in which cost $1.00 for all four, about $.50 of duct tape to hold the tubes together, and we used a cardboard box for the tubes and inclined backboard that cost us $1.00.
3. Solution
We came up with a solution method by making a proper device that could finish the job at hand adequately. The solution we came up with was a device that had differently sized tubes mounted at the top with openings at the top and bottom. The bottom of the tubes are enclosed with the platform the tubes are mounted on. The tubes have slots cut into each side that dispense the coins whenever the spring-loaded buttons are pushed. Once dispensed the coins fall off the edge and slide down the inclined backboard onto the table the device is sitting on. The device is made predominately of Lego components, and cardboard is also used to cover the inclined backboard and to form the tubes. The tubes are held together by duct tape, and we also use springs out of ballpoint pens to make the buttons spring loaded. All of the problems we had from the beginning of the project were fixed with simple trial and error sessions. We never faced any extensive problems, and our first design is the design we used with some slight modifications throughout the building process. The total cost of our project was approximately $2.50. We used four ballpoint pens for their springs in which cost $1.00 for all four, about $.50 of duct tape to hold the tubes together, and we used a cardboard box for the tubes and inclined backboard that cost us $1.00.
