Cubby Buddies Week 3

Week three marked the beginning of a cardboard prototype and research for a final model.

We created a rough cardboard prototype of the cubby itself but cut out close to exact measurements for the cubby buddy.  We put together the bottom cubby and middle cubby for the coats and added handles for precaution.

Larry suggested L-shaped metal supports for the insides of the Cubby Buddy which we found online for about $2 apiece.  We included cardboard cutouts of them in our prototype in the bottom right picture.

In our cubby prototype, we have included the supports, handle for kids to pull the cubby out, and the drawer slide on the sides of the Cubby Buddy.

Our initial idea for the handles were for them to look like those on the cubby.  Upon further discussion, we concluded oval shaped holes in the cubby would be safer for fear of the kids running into the handles.

In the middle picture below, we played out the pieces of the cubby and Cubby Buddy in SolidWorks to calculate the total area of wood needed for the entire cubby and Cubby Buddy.

We are putting lights behind a picture to put on the back of the coat block of the cubby.  The picture shows a person kicking the cubby.  When talking to Becky, she suggested having the children kick the cubby back since they are top heavy and it will be easier and safer for them.  This shows that the children they are allowed to use their feet and can be rough with the cubby.


To further the process with the lights, we wrote a simple code and connected LED lights onto a breadboard and an Arduino.  We used a red, green, and blue LED and found that the Blue shone with the largest radius.

In the video, beneath my finger is a button.  When the button is pressed, the lights do not flash, but when the button is not pressed, the lights start flashing.  The lights were set up to imitate what our final version with the picture would look like.  When the cubby is pushed all the way in, the button would be pressed, but once the child pulls the Cubby Buddy out slightly, the lights would start flashing to inform and remind the kid to push the Cubby Buddy back in.

In addition to using an Arduino, Magnolia, Vivian and I learned to solder wire together using a soldering iron and some led.  We soldered a mini robot that when a battery was inserted, LED lights acting as eyes would begin blinking rainbow colors.

At the end of this week, we came to a conclusion that although our project does not contain a lot of feedback and control, our project is just as time consuming with all the physical building of the cubby and Cubby Buddy.   Our project is more on the side of mechanical engineering.