Locking - A Minor Setback

Unfortunately, not everything can go as smoothly as we would hope. The locking mechanism for our pixels did not function as we intended, and this can be attributed to three compounding issues.

1. Laser cutting dimensional accuracy

After receiving the laser cut components for constructing the pixels, we quickly noticed that some tolerances were not quite what we would have wanted. As a result, many of the fine notches and details required for the pixels to properly align did not have a close enough accuracy for our application. In fact, this was a recurring trend we noticed on many of our acrylic components in general.

2. Motor bounce-back

Originally, we intended to push the locking mechanism into the slotted holes in the pixels. This was done with the assumption that the mechanism could simply be actuated until it was locked. In reality, once the motor's motion is restricted, the motor reverses direction instead of continuing to try moving forward.

3. Minimal locking contact

Due to the small scale at which we are operating our device, there is a limited amount of space for the locking mechanism. This means that even if perfect conditions are achieved during the locking phase, there is a chance that the motor will unlock itself due to vibrations in the system caused by the motion of other pixels.

With this in mind, other contingency plans are being developed and will be elaborated on in the near future.