Lab

Recommended Tools

In addition to the resources that the course provides, students may find it useful to obtain the tools below:

  • wire cutter
  • wire stripper
  • needle nose pliers
  • screwdrivers
  • hex set (ball ends)
  • electrical tape
  • small scissors
  • a small file

Lab Resources

The Senior Design Lab is located at ZJUI room D225. This lab provides you access to various equipment, some spare parts, computers, and a space to work on your senior design project. In addition, course staff will make themselves available in this lab during their office hours to provide guidance on your project throughout the semester. Your weekly meetings with your TA will also likely be at this location.

It is our intention that this laboratory space provides you and your team with all the tools you would need to develop and test your project (within reason, of course!). If there is something that you require in the lab to complete your project that does not exist in the lab, talk to your TA and we will see how we can solve your issue.

Lab Rules

There are two overarching rules of working in the Senior Design Lab (and, frankly, any shared lab). First, be safe, and second, be courteous. Lab privileges will be revoked if you fail to complete the required laboratory safety training or if you break any of the lab rules. Specific points and examples of what we expect:

Breaking the rules or exhibiting bad laboratory etiquette will lead to a loss of points and/or revocation of laboratory access.

Lab Bench Reservations

We do not expect the lab to become so crowded such that finding a lab bench to work at becomes difficult. However, in the case that this does happen (particularly in semesters with very high enrollment), we will move to a Lab Bench Reservation system. Reserving a bench guarantees that spot for you, however each team may only book one lab bench at a time, and for a maximum of 4 hours per day.

If the lab needs to move to a reservation-based system, you will be notified ahead of time.

A few ground rules:

  1. You may use a lab bench (a) during a time for which you have it reserved or (b) any time during which it is not reserved in the system (on a first-come-first-served basis). However, if you are working at a bench that is unreserved and somebody reserves it using the online system, the group with the reservation gets the lab bench.
  2. There is a limit on the amount of time for which you can reserve benches in ZJUI D225. The limit is currently a total of 4 hours of total bench time in the lab per group per day (e.g., 2 hours at Bench A and 2 hours at Bench B would max out your team's reservations for the day). While this may seem restrictive, keep in mind that the course serves more than 30 groups in a typical semester and the lab has only 14 benches. Also keep in mind that you can work at a bench if it is unreserved.
  3. Some lab benches have specialized equipment at them, such as digital logic analyzers. Try to reserve the lab bench that has the equipment that you need.
  4. Cancel reservations that you will not need as soon as possible to give other groups a chance to reserve the lab bench. You can cancel a reservation up to 1 hour before time and not have it count against your daily allotment.
  5. Conflicts and/or reports of people not following these rules should be sent to your TA with the course faculty in copy.
  6. Above all, be courteous. Especially near the end of the semester, the lab will be more crowded and many teams are stressed. Clean up the lab bench when you are done with it. Start and end your sessions on time. Be patient and friendly to your peers and try to resolve conflicts professionally. If we notice empty lab benches that have been reserved, we will cancel your reservations and limit your ability to reserve lab benches in the future. Similarly, do not reserve more time than you will need. If we notice that you are frequently canceling reservations, we will limit your ability to reserve lab benches in the future. Finally, do not try to exploit the system and reserve a bench for 30 minutes every hour for eight hours. We will notice this and revoke your ability to reserve a bench.

Tea Blend Distributor

Zhenzuo Si, Zhiyuan Wang, Ruiqi Ye, Anyu Ying

Featured Project

# TEAM MEMBERS:

- Zhenzuo si (zsi2)

- Ruiqi Ye (ruiqiye3)

- Zhiyuan Wang (zw39)

- Anyu Ying (anyuy2)

# PROBLEM

Tea is a popular beverage but cannot be easily obtained like coffee because no machine on the market can make it as convenient to drink tea as a coffee machine. Additionally, people’s requirements for the type and strength of tea are just as complex as those for coffee. We want to design a device that allows users to input the type of tea they want to drink and their taste preferences and then receive a cup of tea that meets their requirements.”

# SOLUTION OVERVIEW

This machine has a total of five systems: an interactive subsystem that receives user input, a control subsystem that controls all other subsystems, a solid storage subsystem for storing tea leaves, a tea brewing subsystem that adds an appropriate amount of water at the right temperature, and a flavour subsystem for adding additional ingredients such as milk and sugar.

# SOLUTION COMPONENTS

##INTERACTIVE SUBSYSTEM

The interactive subsystem includes a series of digital displays and buttons for users to adjust parameters related to taste, such as tea strength, temperature, and concentration of additional ingredients. It is also capable of delivering this data to the control subsystem.

## CONTROL SUBSYSTEM

The control subsystem is capable of transmitting signals to other subsystems and can control the number of tea leaves and additional ingredients used, as well as the temperature and amount of water used, and the overall brewing time.

## TEA BREWING SUBSYSTEM

The tea brewing subsystem includes a mixing tank that can store the added tea leaves, water, and additional ingredients and can dispense the brewed tea and tea leaves together at the set time.

## FLAVOR SUBSYSTEM

The flavouring subsystem includes tanks for storing syrup and milk, as well as pipelines and valves for adding a predetermined amount of syrup and milk based on instructions from the control subsystem.

# CRITERION FOR SUCCESS

After users set their taste preferences on the front-end interface, they can wait for a certain amount of time and then enjoy a cup of tea that meets their preferences. After each tea-making process, the machine’s interior is relatively clean and there are no residual tea leaves that could affect the taste or food safety.

# DISTRIBUTION OF WORK

Zhiyuan Wang is responsible for designing the mechanical structure, including the outer shell, storage compartment, and liquid pipelines. Anyu Ying is responsible for designing and soldering the circuit board. Zhenzuo Si and Ruiqi Ye are responsible for developing and debugging the control and interaction systems.