Summary/Intro: The main idea of this project was to acquire a better understand about what reverse engineering really is. It was soon figured out that this is the reproduction of another manufacturer's product following detailed examination of its construction or composition. The process destruction to reconstruction follows a design cycle with six steps. These include identifying the purpose, developing a hypothesis, disassembly, analyzing the elements, preparing a report, and resigning. Using and performing these steps was very helpful in seeing what we need to improve, how to change it, and what changes need to be made. My group and I thought a lot about this project and eventually narrowed our ideas down to a small handheld fan. This fan, while small, was surprisingly complex. To start this process we first analyzed the different parts on the external part of the fan. Next we disassembled the fan, keeping sketches of each internal piece. We took each piece out of the plastic shell (motor, batteries, and circuit) and analyzed them closely, this time keeping more detailed sketches. We gathered as much information as we could about things such as the manufacturing, function, structure, etc. We used this information to create a report and presented this information in a power point.
Key Vocabulary: Electrode: An electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit Anode: The negatively charged electrode of a device supplying current Cathode: The positively charged electrode of an electrical device that supplies current Electrolyte: A substance that produces an electrically conducting solution when dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water. The dissolved electrolyte separates into cations and anions, which disperse uniformly through the solvent. An electrolyte solution is electrically neutral. Electromagnetism: The study of the interaction of electric currents or fields and magnetic fields.
Reflection: This project was extremely beneficial and helped me understand the reverse engineering design cycle. Because of this I was able to take my own knowledge and apply my efforts to my group's object. I also learned about new things that I may not have expected to such as how a brushed DC fan works and deeper into how a circuit works with the fan. It was helpful to have group mates and class mates that were knowledgeable in the subject because they were able to explain different components to me when I was stuck or needed help understanding. This project overall was a success and should be done in the future. Over the course of this project there were many things that I did well but also did poorly. One of the things I did well was generate ideas for how exactly we would redesign it. I came up with more than one idea however we ended up using the first one being the attachment of the spray bottle. Another thing I did personally, was become better at sketching. I didn't think I was capable of drawing the things I did and it surprised me and pleased me greatly. As nice as it is to do things well, there are things that will inevitably go poorly. One of these things was pace of work and staying on task. There were some times when I found that I could have been far more engaged in the task at hand as well as done more for the project. Another thing i could have easily improved on was my leadership in the group. Although we worked and collaborated well, I do feel that I could have stepped up more in the group and maybe contributed a little more.