The struggle was real
Kanyempwe, Juma B.
Introduction
With a lot of design work to do most of the projects were behind schedule so we never had a chance to write a blog post. We were trying to make the final project on time so we divided the tasks to finish on time. Mary and Joseph were designing and coding the circuit for the wall suction system while I had to go to kariakoo market looking for the components we need for the project.
We had two design concepts which were very promising for our project; mechanical system and sensor system.
- Mechanical System is the system we design using a valve to block the negative pressure from the hospital when the container is full and as the valve moves up it shows different color code so as to indicate the level of fluid in the container.
The system consists of three led lights, three resistors(220ohms), battery(9V) and connection wires only.
Consider the figure below
- Sensor system is the system consisting of the arduino board with a laser emitter and photo dependent diode for detecting the level of fluid in the container. The system detects the level of the fluid but does not block the negative pressure when the container is full and hence it requires a pressure valve.
The circuit consist of arduino board, laser emitter, photo dependent diode, battery and connectors
Below is the sketch of the system
The mechanical system was the system that could reduce to almost 50% of the production costs by making our final product even way cheaper. But due to shortage of time and the need to complete the project on time we had to go with a sensor system. After making several prototype sensor systems we opt to go with a mechanical system since it was more direct and it will save us a lot of time.
Below is the table of result
| s/n | SENSORS | RESULTS | COMMENTS |
| 1 | Ultrasonic sensor | PASS | Not suitable** |
| 2 | IR sensor | FAIL | Not suitable* |
| 3 | Water level sensor | PASS | Not suitable** |
| 4 | Laser emitter + Photo Dependent Diode | PASS | Suitable* |
*The sensor has no direct contact with the fluid inside the container
**The sensor must be in contact with the fluid inside the container
To prevent transmission of bacteria the container must be easy to clean, with a sensor inside the container that won’t be possible.
Conclusion
A lot of activities were not going well for our team and by this time we just managed to complete coding and soldering the circuit. And after that we start testing the sensor to detect the fluid inside the container.