Mechanical Design
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The interior casings with which our solenoids were wound were 3D printed out of PLA. We used laser cut 1/4" MDF to house both our locking mechanism and solenoids. In the image to the right, the solenoids are hidden (in the bottom 8 platforms) but the exposed wires lead to them. The locking mechanisms stick out at the top.
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SOLENOID ENCASINGS
This section-view render shows in depth the different platforms we had for our solenoid and locking mechanism encasing. Each character had all these platforms, with four following sizes for the following functions:
Section 1: Houses locking mechanism containing the pin that users would feel.
Section 2: Spacer to allow locking plunger to drop down
Section 3: Houses solenoids that drive metal rods through section 2 to actuate the pins in section 1.
Section 4: Spacers to allow the metal rods to return to rest when not actuated
Laser cut MDF platforms turned out to be a suboptimal choice, as the holes etched by the laser were not all concentric with each other. This led the solenoids in section 3 to be slightly tilted, which caused the rods in sections 3 and 4 to be constrained and not push up into sections 1 and 2.
Section 1: Houses locking mechanism containing the pin that users would feel.
Section 2: Spacer to allow locking plunger to drop down
Section 3: Houses solenoids that drive metal rods through section 2 to actuate the pins in section 1.
Section 4: Spacers to allow the metal rods to return to rest when not actuated
Laser cut MDF platforms turned out to be a suboptimal choice, as the holes etched by the laser were not all concentric with each other. This led the solenoids in section 3 to be slightly tilted, which caused the rods in sections 3 and 4 to be constrained and not push up into sections 1 and 2.
LOCKING Mechanism
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We incorporated latches into our system that would set each pin of a character high when hit once, then low again when hit again. We chose to use latches so that when a pin needed to be activated by a solenoid, it wouldn't require a constant supply of current to the solenoid and thus overheat. We could instead supply current briefly to the solenoid, and it would latch the pin into place until current was supplied again to un-latch it. These latches were salvaged from a set of click pens.
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PRoof of Concept
Unfortunately, we were not able to have a mechanism with realistic Braille-sized characters. We would have liked to either create small enough solenoids to activate a more closely packed set of pins, or build multi-linkages that connected and activated a smaller set of characters from our set of solenoids. We plan on furthering our product after the course is finished, but for now, our product serves as a proof of concept of a Braille converter.
Full Mechanical Encasing
