Photo of the Project

Video of the Project

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Executive Summary

This project was made for my friend Sunny to help her make decisions. Being faced with lots of decisions can be overwhelming, and so my solution was to create a device that makes decisions for the user. I chose to implement this in the form of a dry-erase wheel that spins around to choose an option. I figured that this would allow the user to customize the decisions on the wheel to their liking, and that the spinning of the wheel could be calming to some. The device uses an Arduino to handle the logic, and has two power sources; the Arduino is plugged to a power source, and the motor is powered by a battery. The user can change the power of the motor by turning the knob on the dashboard, and an LED brightens or dims to show the power of the motor. Pressing the button causes the motor and the wheel to spin, and it stops via friction, causing it to land on a random option.

Sketch

My prototype has changed slightly from when I first sketched out the idea. The main change was that I changed the shape of the base to accomodate the Arduino and breadboard. This also ended up helping quite a bit with the balance of the device. This also allowed me to move the button to a more accessible location (away from the wheel and facing upwards), and to add a dial to adjust the motor speed and an LED to indicate those changes.

CAD Render

CAD Drawing Packet

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Special thanks

ME 10, despite how much work it's been, has been one of the most fun classes I've had the chance to take during my time at UCSB. And for that, I want to thank Professor Tsai. His lectures were really engaging and fun, and I feel like I learned a lot about what it means to be an engineer. It's been a really good time, this past quarter.

I don't think I could've done this without the help of my TA Sarah. There were a lot of times where I just didn't know what to do or how to approach setting up the electronics or even just the logistics of putting this thing together. But thanks to her, I was able to pull through and really understand how to use an Arduino properly.

Sarah, Geoff, if you're reading this, thank you. I'm so glad that I took this class.