UAF - Advanced Prototype Evaluation

Because the PIR sensors were unable to be implemented into UAF, the final stages that will be shown in this journal will be considered as an "advanced prototype" of the original proposal, that has the majority of elements the original plan detailed, but during implementation, some may have had to be removed.

Here is the finished result...





This artefact differs from the proposal only slightly, in where the idea that the user would not be able to directly interact with the piece, had to be removed because of the problems with the PIR sensors. Other than this, the piece pictured above follows the proposal almost perfectly, the only difference being the user will have to directly interact with the object, but still feel the satisfaction of using it.

I feel the fan still has the "unusual" characteristics that were listed in the proposal and where the idea for UAF stemmed from. This piece is a much more of an "obediant" house fan (rather than a "dominant", or "bossy" fan), that users have to interact with directly in order to get it to change, and such things as programs and speed settings associated with regular fans have been completley removed.

In regards to what has been accomplished in this project, the majority of same components were used as were listed in the proposal, the code is all contained on the Arduino and the Arduino powers all of the components via a single mains power cable, making the UAF a self-contained unit as was planned.

UAF Stand Design and Concealment

To stay as true to the proposal as possible, the wiring and Arduino must be concealed within the stand of the UAF. In order to not make the stand appear out of place, the same black colouring will be used, and a similar plastic will be used as the material.

Because the servo motors need room to move they will have to be mounted to an edge of a sort of 'trough' so the 'pitch' axis of movement is as wide as possible.

The stand for UAF is intended to look like this...



With this design, the UAF will be entirely enclosed, with only one external mains power connection needed to power the entire piece.

UAF Progress

There has been a lot of progress since the last post on UAF. The progress made has shaped the possible outcome for UAF and what it is evolving into. A previous post mentioned that the PIR sensors used for detecting movement would unlikely be able to be included in the project as they weren't outputting any useable/readable data, this is still the case. However, the sensors after they are successfully turned on and are allowed to configure their range, do detect movement, and after researching through various brands of burglar alarm systems and finding out what pins on the sensor's PCB are the output, it seems the sensor does require a special pulse from an alarm control box in order to return a signal.

Also mentioned in this post was the idea of adding a second potentiometer to the circuit so that the user would be able to control the two motors individually (and so move the fan on two separate axis). This idea is now implemented and working successfully...




To finalise the project and make it seem as close to a consumer product as possible, UAF will have a base, that will hide most of the cables and Arduino from view, and stabalise the movement of the fan...

Using Fans with Arduino - Other Projects

The use of Fans with the Arduino seems to actually be a highly popular form of input. Many designers have used the same type of fans (albeit smaller, so they're easier to blow) that UAF is using to give input to the Ardunio, instead of the Ardunio outputting to the Fan. Here are some interesting examples that use Fans and the Arduino to control lighting...





The designer behind these pieces seems to have taken the same train of thought as I have with UAF, where he thought of an alternative use of the Fan, to make it an input device rather than an output device.