The prototype is mostly complete. We will be presenting our prototype at the University of Waterloo Mechatronics Symposium in the upcoming week. This year the symposium will be held virtually. The poster, demo and marketing video can be found here. Mobile App DevelopmentThis week, the final changes to the device and app were made. For the app, Bluetooth connectivity between the app and the device was fully implemented. The app is now able to connect to the Zefyr device using Bluetooth LE (Low Energy), and receive usage logs from the device. The usage logs are internally parsed to get the data for the most recent log, as well as the current battery level of the device. The device log data is added to the database as an Inhaler Log and the device summary and log screens are updated to reflect the new log data. The number of doses left for the device, as well as the current level are updated to reflect the number of logs received and the battery level received.
For the device, the log data is now being sent to the app along with the current battery level after each inhaler use. Mechanical Design & Hardware
The sleeve was redesigned to add wiring paths and button pouch.
For the prototype, a new button board was created, with an additional button now on the device. The purpose of the second button will be to simply turn the device on or off, without running any of the intended inhaler code. The button can be thought of as a debugging/engineering button. All the wires are now integrated into the sleeve.
Mechanical DesignThe finite element analysis (FEA) of the new inhaler model is completed: Mechanical DesignWe are having difficulties with detecting a pressure change using the orifice plate. There are many possible factors for why this is the case. It could be because the air must flow through the inhaler body before reaching the orifice plate. Not all of the air flow may be reaching the orifice plate. Also, since the inhaler body is hollow, air may be escaping out the sides of the top of the inhaler. A possible solution that we are trying is to generate a larger pressure difference in the orifice plate, so that it can be detected by the differential pressure sensor. The dimensions of the plate dimensions have been updated as shown below which should generate a pressure that is several orders of magnitude larger. HardwareThe transistors finally arrived, and they were tested and installed onto the existing circuit boards. Additionally, the circuit boards could now be connected and installed onto the newly developed frame for the inhaler. The only component not yet included in the current prototype is the battery, since once the battery is attached, the onboard controller cannot be turned off without the proper software. Therefore, until the proper software is developed and flashed onto the board, the battery will be left off the device, and it will be powered by its USB port.
This upcoming week, the software for the prototype will be developed. Since all the components have been tested, software corresponding to each of the components already exist, and the bulk of the work will be integrating the blocks of code together. |
AuthorsMatthew, Patricia Archives
March 2021
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