This week all members of TrollLABS met and got aquainted. Contact information was shared.

This week we had the TrollLABS Pecha Kucha along with pizza. Before that we cleaned and fixed stuff in TrollLABS that needed cleaning and fixing. 

Monday 11/09.2023

After many weeks we have finally gotten the basics up and running.

• Three end-stops are attached; one per axis.
• Lightburn software is downloaded on 1 of 2 Laptops
• GRBL is calibrated and oriented

Our next step will be including the lowering and raising of the z-axis in the run-cycles. 

Friday 15/09.2023

Monday 18/09.23

Today we worked out a way for the drill to start spinning before lowering itself onto the slice.

The solution was to include a tiny circle on the edge of the workboard. We will see how this solution holds as the project develops.

We also had a meeting with arts about the project and the plans going forward. 

Friday 22/09.23

Scrum with whole lab

Reached the conclusion that we need to measure how much force is needed to hold down the slices.

We have decided to test out a vacuum method because we find it the most flexible solution. 

It will not make drilling the sides of the slice a cross-contamination hazard, as many of the other solutions do.

We will use Monday to prototype and test this idea.

Monday 25/09.23

Today we started developing the first vacuum gripper prototype.

We tested it both at TrollLabs and down at MR-lab

At the end of the day we had a meeting with the people responsible for the hyperspectral imaging part of the project

Friday 29/09.23

Today, we started with a scrum meeting. Participents were Peter, Øystein, Håvard & Eirik

We developed a quick version of the cam clamp holder, before taking it down to St. Olavs for testing together with the vacuum gripper made on monday. How the test went you can see here: Clamping test 1 (29.09.23).

We will now focus on getting a vacuum gripper on the CNC drill in the freezer. This will be the focus point on monday next week.

Monday 02/10.23

Today, we worked on implementing a vacuum gripper on the CNC-machine. We made several small prototypes from lasercut MDF, and tried to find a good way to include a vacuum tube from one of the sides. We will continue to work on this on wednesday.

Wednesday 04/10.23

Today we worked on improving the vacuum attachment to the drill-bed. We did at last find a design we though would work well. We decided to combine the entire drill-bed design into one piece and 3D print it. 

Friday 06/10.23

Our next task will be to find out where the tubing for the vacuum will go. One way is to drill through the bottom or preferably into the bottom and out the side. In addition we need to find a way to pump the same air back into the box as to not remove all the cold air from the box.

Before we drill and wire the tubing, we need to figure out how big of a tube we need. We have started manufacturing several beds with different vacuum-hole diameters, so that we can test it on monday. This will hopefully lead to us testing the complete setup at the end of next week. 

Monday 09/10.23

Today the newly printed beds were used to test how big diameter we need in order to have a high enough airflow through the bed. The test is elaborated here. The results showed promise and a need to test further with smaller diameters. This will be conducted later this week.

Friday 13/10.23

The print we put on on Monday was not to be found when we returned today. This was too bad as it forces us to delay the testing to Monday. Instead we spent the day preparing for the assembly of the complete prototype on Monday, as well as refining the design of the bed to better fit in the machine. We have also searched the Composite lab for tubes with internal diameters we know work in case Monday's test fails, so that we have a bigger chance of making a working prototype on Monday. We found one promising tube with internal diameter of 6mm, and external diameter of 9mm.

Last test we had to file the gap where the bed top would sit, because the margins were too small. These margins were tested today by 3dprinting and measuring, and correcting the cad if it is too tight or loose. After testing with 3 different prototypes we have concluded that a margin of 0.15 mm is good for a tight, but not too tight fit.

The latest design is being printed to next time. Then we will test if the suction is sufficient, and if it is we will assemble all the parts of the machine and test it.