Homework 4: Packaging Specifications and Design Due: Friday, February 13, at NOON

Transcription

1 Homework 4: Packaging Specifications and Design Due: Friday, February 13, at NOON Team Code Name: _Magic Wand Group No. 5 Team Member Completing This Homework: Zac Greenawalt Address of Team Member: purdue.edu NOTE: This is the first in a series of four design component homework assignments, each of which is to be completed by one team member. The body of the report should be 3-5 pages, not including this cover page, references, attachments or appendices. Evaluation: SCORE DESCRIPTION Excellent among the best papers submitted for this assignment. Very few 10 corrections needed for version submitted in Final Report. Very good all requirements aptly met. Minor additions/corrections needed for 9 version submitted in Final Report. Good all requirements considered and addressed. Several noteworthy 8 additions/corrections needed for version submitted in Final Report. Average all requirements basically met, but some revisions in content should 7 be made for the version submitted in the Final Report. Marginal all requirements met at a nominal level. Significant revisions in 6 content should be made for the version submitted in the Final Report. Below the passing threshold major revisions required to meet report * requirements at a nominal level. Revise and resubmit. * Resubmissions are due within one week of the date of return, and will be awarded a score of 6 provided all report requirements have been met at a nominal level. Comments:

2 1.0 Introduction The Magic Wand is a hand writing recognition device that will use an accelerometer, inside a pen shaped device, to interpret an individual s movement of the pen as a character and display the character on an LCD screen. The data from the accelerometer will not be analyzed on the pen, but on a base station that receives the accelerometer data wirelessly from a small transceiver inside the pen. The design of the project is made difficult due to the small size of most writing devices and the expectations that the Magic Wand will be ergonomically friendly. 2.0 Commercial Product Packaging The Magic Wand is entering a market where there are very few real competitors. Many ideas and prototypes have been developed but very few have been marketed to the average consumer. There are, however, two writing devices currently in the market that have seen some success and incorporate novel concepts to make them practical, but they are both dissimilar to the Magic Wand in the underlying technology. 2.1 Product #1 The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen is a smart pen (comparable in size to a Montblanc pen 5/8" x 6 1/8") that works in conjunction with special paper to record your handwriting, record audio and sync it with your notes, install special applications to be used with the Smartpen, all the while containing an OLCD, speaker, and ball-point ink cartridge and 1 or 2GB of onboard flash storage. The major features of this pen that distinguish it from others are the recording and playback capabilities and built in applications. Other advanced writing pens have the ability to record handwriting, but the Smartpen is unique in its ability to synchronize written notes with what was recorded at the instant the notes were taken. An example of the onboard applications is a calculator that can be used to perform simple calculations. A more advanced printed calculator can be created for use with scientific, financial, and statistical calculations. -1-

3 A limitation of this pen, that the magic wand is working to avoid, is the requirement of special paper. The pen uses a patented dot positioning system along with an infrared camera to determine where the pen currently is. Without the special paper the pen cannot sync the audio and writing, thus limiting the pens marketability. 2.2 Product #2 The second product to be analyzed is the FLY Pentop Computer. This device is similar to the Livescribe Smartpen but has a different targeted demographic. The Pentop is geared towards teens and provides educational tools, along with note Livescribe Pulse Smartpen taking abilities, to create a unique writing experience. The Pentop uses similar technology to the Smartpen, an infrared camera with special paper, to detect handwriting and record it to its onboard memory. The notes can then be downloaded via USB to a computer and viewed on the screen or scanned and imported into Microsoft Word. What really sets the Pentop apart from the Smartpen are the FLYware cartridges that can be added to the top of the pen. These allow the user to use the pen in an educational fashion, or as a game device. The individual can draw a keyboard and tap the drawn keys to hear the note played by the pen or one can do geography problems and math problems in an educational fashion. The Pentop is slightly larger and heavier than the Smartpen and also contains less memory and does not have the ability to record sounds; however, the Pentop has FLY Pentop Computer more applications as of this writing and is also less expensive. 3.0 Project Packaging Specifications The Magic Wand, along with the accompanying base station, creates two different types of designs. The Magic Wand needs to be compact and not weigh enough to be difficult to use while also using minimum power to provide the longest possible usage without needing new -2-

4 batteries. The base station itself is relatively simple with the only peripherals being an LCD screen, battery, and a transceiver. The Magic Wand will be a pen shaped device that will have the PCB mounted on the inside or on the top side of the pen. Mounting the PCB on the inside allows for more durability and also provides a more aesthetically pleasing design. In contrast, having the PCB on the outside simplifies the design of the Wand, as a non-custom pen can be used to hold the board. Another advantage of having the PCB mounted externally is ensuring that the device is properly oriented. The team is still unsure if a certain orientation will be needed for the accelerometer to properly analyze the movement and determine character strokes. For the purposes of this paper, it will be assumed that the team plans to mount the PCB inside a pen shell. The Wand will be 20 cm in length with the PCB spanning 18 cm. The long length of the PCB is due to the AA batteries being mounted above the PCB. An alternative is to have the accelerometer before the batteries and have the batteries at the bottom of the pen, thus shortening the board. There is concern with this approach that more noise will be on the signals from the accelerometer, being higher in the pen and thus experiencing more movement. The base station will be just large enough to contain all the required components. It will be 12.5cm X 12cm and have an LCD screen on top to view the characters. The final design may have the small antenna sticking out slightly from a side so as to allow for better communication with the wand. 4.0 PCB Footprint Layout There are two PCBs that will need to be designed for the Magic Wand, the PCB for the Wand itself and the PCB for the base station. The PCB for the Wand will contain the accelerometer, a transceiver, 2 batteries connected to it (possibly resting on an empty part of the board itself), a fuel gauge, and a microcontroller. The PCB for the base station will contain the battery, LCD, transceiver, and microcontroller. See Table 4.1 for a BOM. Part Area Price ADXL330 (Accelerometer) 25mm 2 $14-3-

5 MRF24J40MA (Transceiver) 504mm 2 $10 AA Batteries (2 Batteries) 1400mm 2 $5 PIC18F2320 (Microcontroller) 180mm 2 $7.5 LTC4150 (Fuel Gauge) 15mm 2 $3.00 LCD1654BL (LCD) 7150mm 2 $12.90 UBBP01 (Battery) 3656mm s $6.80 Table Summary The design for the Magic Wand will meet the project specifications, but some future modification made be required once a careful analysis of the individual parts can be made. There will be some difficulty with the Wand and its PCB but the base station will prove to be simple. The major constraints are still size and power, and will undoubtedly rear their ugly head as more progress is made. -4-

6 List of References [1] (2009, February). [Online]. Available: [2] (2009, February). Livescribe. [Online]. Available: [3] (2009, February). Editorial Review. [Online]. Available: [4] (2009, February). Available: [5] (2009, February). Available: [6] (2009, February). Available: _UBBP01.pdf -5-

7 Appendix A: Project Packaging Illustrations Magic Wand Base Station -6-

8 Appendix C: PCB Footprint Layout Wand PCB Base Station PCB -7-