A Level Engineering Project

[landroversforever]

First things first:

1.Sorry if this is O/T!

2.Sorry if it's in the wrong section!

Right, now for the main bit:

I'm studying A level engineering which is made up of 6 units. Unit 6 is the one i need help with;

the unit involves making something, and this is my problem. I can't think of anything! any project has to have

either something mechanical or electrical (or both). Having a 'client' is very useful for writing the paper work (questions to-and-fro)

I would like to to envolve some fabrication as i enjoy this, rather than having all electronics.

Does anyone have any ideas??? Land Rover related is always good, especially as I can take a page up writing about needs for said-product

unfortunately building a Landy is out of it...I think

Thanks in advance Everyone

[ciderman]

High level winch bumper including an electronic winch ??

[landroversforever]

building the winch??

[will_warne]

Not much help but for my Design Technology A Level major project I built a gravity powered slope rider (basically an off road go - kart but no engine). It was great fun (at times) to produce but it did require a HUGE amount of work (150+ hrs in the build and about 100 hours on the design folder ). One of my friends (was my co driver and will be again when I finish the truck) built a safe with combination lock - this required a huge amount of accurate machining and none of it CNC! Both were good projects but a bit OTT because we enjoyed fab work. They did however get good marks.

I don't know how similar what you have to do is but what you decide on really depends on how much time you want to spend on it and what facilities you have (I was lucky to go to a school with a stunning workshop). I remember being told to try and show off as many of your skills as possible - tubework, welding, machining (turning and milling) and casting are all great to get in if you can. Although its great to go something you enjoy (as it will make it easier) also make sure you do something that will get the marks

Oh, the one LR related thing I made was for my AS level (minor) project - I made a tool box designed to sit behind the bulkhead in a series LR. The box was lightweight but fairly strong as it was made from ali angle riveted to ali sheet that made up the sides (the holes for the rivets were punched making it fairly quick to produce). It had a pair of hinged lids, a pair of vacuum formed plastic trays that sat beneath them and a 3rd tray was used as a hinged tray in one side to double as an access hatch to the bottom compartment plus parts tray while working on a vehicle.

HTHs

[Guest otchie1]

Design an electronically controlled cooling fan setup that includes data logging.

Your fab includes the fan brackets, thermistor adapter & electronics interface.

Your design includes the electronics to read the temp, display it digitally, allow for a automatic setting & a manual override and logging it wrt time.

Your research should look at thermistors, push vs pull cooling systems, ruggedised electronics for automtive applications and human interface design.

You could expand it by tying in other systems to see how temp relates to load, fuel flow, air flow, ambient temp, speed.

Should keep you busy for a while.

[landroversforever]

thanks Will, something along the lines of the buggy sounds right up my street! I have plenty of time i can put into the project. I'd love to learn to weld what sort of things could i do for powering it? XP motor lawn mower engine?

I am lucky as the school workshops are very well equipped: Massive Colchester Lathe, MIG welder, CNC Lathe, CNC Router (does alli too), TIG on its way apparently, CNC laser cutter, Plasma Cutter, 3 smaller lathes, Donkey saw, tensile testing machine,drills. And that lot is just the metal shop.

otchie1 - Sounds a tad complicated for me! + I'm not the biggest fan of electronics.

[Turbocharger]

Remember what you're aiming for - good marks, not a toy to play with afterwards.

I have to recommend a simple project, something you know you can complete. You'll not get many marks for drawing a moonrocket and presenting a piece of pipe with holes in at the exhibition. On the other hand, a simple closed-section aluminium buggy frame (with some computer analysis of the frame in bending and torsion), well designed and carefully built, should get you a good mark.

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

How about

A electronic / mechanical / hyrdaulic attachment that can be connected to say a JC2 pipe bender that with a simple PC could help produce bends automaticaly rather than by hand ?

Simailr to the above but via a connection for a hand held plasma cutter that would allow the cutter to operate on it own via the pc input / output to allow cuts to be made automatically toa shape format etc required ?

Both are saleable on the market afterwards too IMHO ?

Nige

[bobtail4x4]

As more and more people run on bio fuel, how about a bio /waste oil fuel setup?

you can make a start / stop diesel tank, all the solenoids and switchgear with timers and temperature controlled if you want to be more involved?

it can all be mounted on a board as a display or vehicle fitted.

[Guest noggy]

what course exactly is this? systems and control?

surely you need to have electronics?

Why not build something that detects whether a wheel is slipping? magnets mounted in your wheel weights and a magnet witch thingymabob and a PCB and a couple of LED's to show which wheel is slipping and how badly?

or stick some slide potentiometers into your shocks, and have a LED output to see how much your suspension is traveling?

both simple, have all the "processes" that you need to have and easily completable and would score a high grade.. oh and its LR related

( i dropped out of sixthform before i finished my A level major project i had good ideas)

(but it hasnt stopped me from being able to study my engineering degree )

[landroversforever]

Remember what you're aiming for - good marks, not a toy to play with afterwards.

I have to recommend a simple project, something you know you can complete. You'll not get many marks for drawing a moonrocket and presenting a piece of pipe with holes in at the exhibition. On the other hand, a simple closed-section aluminium buggy frame (with some computer analysis of the frame in bending and torsion), well designed and carefully built, should get you a good mark.

Thanks for reminding me of that first point!

How about

A electronic / mechanical / hyrdaulic attachment that can be connected to say a JC2 pipe bender that with a simple PC could help produce bends automaticaly rather than by hand ?

Simailr to the above but via a connection for a hand held plasma cutter that would allow the cutter to operate on it own via the pc input / output to allow cuts to be made automatically toa shape format etc required ?

Both are saleable on the market afterwards too IMHO ?

Nige

I dont know how i would go about this, how i would put in the PC controll

As more and more people run on bio fuel, how about a bio /waste oil fuel setup?

you can make a start / stop diesel tank, all the solenoids and switchgear with timers and temperature controlled if you want to be more involved?

it can all be mounted on a board as a display or vehicle fitted.

this would be an idea for LPG/petrol or Veg/Diesel. electronics based rather than Fabrication.

what course exactly is this? systems and control?

surely you need to have electronics?

Why not build something that detects whether a wheel is slipping? magnets mounted in your wheel weights and a magnet witch thingymabob and a PCB and a couple of LED's to show which wheel is slipping and how badly?

or stick some slide potentiometers into your shocks, and have a LED output to see how much your suspension is traveling?

both simple, have all the "processes" that you need to have and easily completable and would score a high grade.. oh and its LR related

( i dropped out of sixthform before i finished my A level major project i had good ideas)

(but it hasnt stopped me from being able to study my engineering degree )

It doesnt have to have electronics if it has something mechanical.

I like the idea for the suspension travel thing. have a line of LEDs for the position; lights up the most relevant LED on the scale.

Something simmilar to Noggy: How about a pressure sensor system that puts a sensor between the spring and spring mount, shows where the weight is being supported. Feeding back to some sort of display with the values. would it be useful for showing if its about to tip over in a roll, with one side lightening up??

Or even the above idea's combined into one system?

[Guest otchie1]

First things first:

A good thing to do is to find out what A grade projects have been done in the past few years. This will give you an idea of the scope required for a good grade - from your end of the project the requirements are all a bit vague. I always thought 'Do a project' was a bit lightweight in terms of direction but I did my A levels over 20 years ago.

[FridgeFreezer]

Better to do something simple and do it well than go too ambitious, not get it finished and end up struggling to write-up what you've done to cover what you need to cover.

Do something easy, if you find it's too easy - soup it up and do a Version 2

[landroversforever]

one of the ones done last year was a reverse sensor thingy.

A new teacher that has joined the school has got alot of experience of working with sensing systems, so would be damn helpful with the weight/suspension postion sensing.

[steve_d]

A buggy has been suggested but how about a Traction Kite Buggy.

This would be fairly easy to make thereby ensuring you complete the task.

As these already exist the main part of the project would involve researching what other features users would like to see or what the failings are of the currently available models.

Following your comment about having a client you could contact Kite shops and see if they would be prepared to act the part of the client and give you their ideal buggy specification and target price.

Steve

[pugwash]

you can invent something for me if you want.

As some on here know i have dabbled with fish and chip shops. I often buy a couple of thousand £ of spuds each week. To turn them into chips we put them into a really big peeler that rotates at high speed and is coated in an abrasive material. Water is poured in to remove the peelings which are effectively a mush. If you are careful you will lose about 12% by weight of spuds, however if you aren't careful you can happily lose 25% of weight down the drain- that's some £500 every week down the drain literally. Busy or large shops employ young lads to prepare the spuds normally- it being a pretty boring but hard job- however they are NOT careful and can waste a lot of money.

Inventing something that would check on the potatoes and stop the machine at the exact point they are peeled would be an extremely worthwhile invention, could be sold to probably 6000 shops and could be charged at a reasonably price- £1000 or so i would say.

This could be a project that would have a strong design element, could have a lot of research put into it and could be ectronic, mechanical or both. It would also solve a real word existing problem which i would suggest is rarely managed by most of your compatriots.

There could even be a possibilty of making money from it!

[landroversforever]

Steve D - I have no idea what you're on about

pug - are you serious? sounds bonkers to me

[Guest otchie1]

you can invent something for me if you want.

As some on here know i have dabbled with fish and chip shops. I often buy a couple of thousand £ of spuds each week. To turn them into chips we put them into a really big peeler that rotates at high speed and is coated in an abrasive material. Water is poured in to remove the peelings which are effectively a mush. If you are careful you will lose about 12% by weight of spuds, however if you aren't careful you can happily lose 25% of weight down the drain- that's some £500 every week down the drain literally. Busy or large shops employ young lads to prepare the spuds normally- it being a pretty boring but hard job- however they are NOT careful and can waste a lot of money.

Inventing something that would check on the potatoes and stop the machine at the exact point they are peeled would be an extremely worthwhile invention, could be sold to probably 6000 shops and could be charged at a reasonably price- £1000 or so i would say.

This could be a project that would have a strong design element, could have a lot of research put into it and could be ectronic, mechanical or both. It would also solve a real word existing problem which i would suggest is rarely managed by most of your compatriots.

There could even be a possibilty of making money from it!

chip 'em with the skins on and call it eco-friendly. You could probably even charge more for them.

[A Twig]

I built an electronic gas pressure sensor, with an alarm that sounded when the pressure was the same as whatever you'd set it to be. Really simple electronics, just a manometer, A/D convertor, a few AND gates and a counter.

Looked awesome as well

[steve_d]

This is a traction Kite

http://www.flexifoil.com/shop/traction/kites/

This is a buggy

http://www.flexifoil.com/shop/traction/har...standard_buggy/

This is what happens when you put the two together

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxh-eRyi3hw&...feature=related

Steve

[freeagent]

I've not got any ideas for you, but I do have a bit of advice.

Go and ask your lecturer for a copy of the mark scheme, have a read and work out where the marks for your project are given... you can then decide which parts of the project are the most important.

Don't forget, they are marking you on the process you go through, not just the final outcome.

I went back to Uni when I was 31 (4 years ago) to do a Design Technology and Engineering degree, doing well at college is all about playing the game, and not losing sight of what you have actually been asked to do.

My final project was the design of a modular roof rack system for 4x4 vehicles, using Polymers, rather than just metal.

The project didn't actually work (due to material properties) but I got a good mark as the paperwork to back it up was watertight....

I'd say keep it simple, and learn as much as you can about your chosen subject....

[landroversforever]

Cheers Freeagent

I have annother lesson tomorrow and I shall get hold of the mark scheme

[pugwash]

pug - are you serious? sounds bonkers to me

Yes absolutely serious- it would be a porject with a use as opposed to the usually pointless and thoughtless projects that most students do.

[landroversforever]

sorry pug. Sounded a bit the first time i read it Dont chippy's buy in chips ready? we do at work

[Turbocharger]

I'm sorry to kick Puggers roundly in the knackers but I don't think his is a good project. It's a cracking business proposal and you could definately develop it, proves that it works, start producing machines and then sign a supply agreement with a big chain and a franchise agreement to an outsourced manufacturer (eastern Europe, naturally), but you won't see big marks from your A-level project.

Read the markscheme, do what it says, make a (probably pointless) project and take your glory on results day. Then take over the world with the WonderChipper afterwards.