Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
mechanism, and a chain drive to move products along a linear path
through a series of modules. The carousel looks more like an old slide
projector and moves a carousel of a few hundred products (we're using
it for small printed circuit boards) around so that each of them can be
programmed/tested/operated on by a module. Other great movers for
future design will be a vibratory bowl feeder and a mechanism to sep-
arate passed and failed products from the end of a conveyance.
Modules are easily swappable on a conveyance or a carousel so that
FARKUS systems can be quickly customized. On a typical convey-
ance—say, a Cubelets Flashlight Tester—we'll have four modules. The
first has a mechanical arm that tests all five faces of the Cubelet for
mechanical defects, such as short circuits or lack of connectivity. The
second module uses an Arduino microcontroller to program the Cube-
let's firmware. The third module has another mechanical arm to simu-
late five connected Cubelets and make sure the data transfer is correct.
The fourth arm has a photocell to test that the actual flashlight LED on
the Cubelet is illuminating correctly at various states. As a Cubelet
makes its way through the series of modules, the control module keeps
track of its progress and state. There's also room on the conveyance for
a fifth module that will put Cubelets that pass the tests in one box and
those that fail in another container. We've built modules to test and pro-
gram circuit boards to test for short circuits and connectivity on Cube-
lets, to ultrasonically weld plastic bits, to test digital communication
(
Figure 12.8
)
, and to functionally test robot drive mechanisms.
