Project Logs

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• Cartridge Design - Dispensing (Other)

  dthunes • 04/29/2015 at 19:17 • 2 comments

  We had a meeting last night, a decided we may have put the cart before the horse. Once we decided to go with the cartridge design, we just assumed it would have an internal "tube" holding the pills. We failed to look at alternative methods of packing/storing pills. Below are a few more pill dispenser ideas:

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• Cartridge Design - Dispensing

  dthunes • 04/29/2015 at 18:29 • 0 comments

  The cartridge dispensing method is still up in the air. We brainstormed 3 ideas - plastic film with holes, a rotating drum, and a reciprocating plate. In each of these designs, the cartridge has a tube which holds the pills and a dispensing mechanism (except the motor, which is part of the machine). Below are the initial concept drawings:

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• Cartridge Design - Cartridge to Appliance Interface

  dthunes • 04/28/2015 at 22:28 • 0 comments

  Pills come in various sizes and shapes, and because of that, the cartridge template needs to be modular enough to accommodate different designs. We'd also like it to be flexible enough to accommodate ideas and designs we haven't though of yet. I'd ideally like the size and shape of the cartridge to be completely flexible (as long as it fits into the proper envelope). The only rigid part of the design would then be the mounting, actuation, and machine readable portions of the cartridge.

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• Cartridge Design - Overview

  dthunes • 04/28/2015 at 21:53 • 0 comments

  The first step in designing our machine it to figure out a template for the cartridge. We need this so we can figure out the scale of the appliance. Design considerations are as follows:

  • Cartridge should enter appliance from the front
  • Cartridge should have a standard mounting design across all cartridges
    • (Pill scale can vary between 1/8"x1/8"x1/16" and 1"x1/2"x1/2")
  • Cartridges will have non-standard dimensions
    • (Very small pills will not need as much room as very large pills, in general)
  • Cartridge should require little dexterity to insert and remove
    • (Use an ink cartridge as a meter - nothing requiring more dexterity)
  • Cartridge should have a machine readable aspect
    • (Unique ID, medication name, and/or dosage)
  • Cartridge should have a standard actuation method
    • (The same actuation method is used for very large and very small pills)

  
  

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• Project Direction - Resolved

  dthunes • 04/15/2015 at 00:20 • 0 comments

  After an in depth discussion, we've decided to go with the cartridge style (option 2) design. Although a cartridge system limits openness, we feel that it is ultimately a better direction.

  Benefits of cartridge style:

  • Eliminate many machine mechanisms
    • Pill intake
    • Pill sorting
  • Eliminates the need to input (most) pill information
    
    • Pill info can be linked to cartridge
    • Dosing information can be linked to cartridge
  • More consistent pill dispensing
  • More open-ended packing options
    • Cartridges can be upgraded or design after the fact
    • Not constrained to pre-chosen pill sizes
    • Not constrained to standard pill shapes
      

• Scale

  dthunes • 04/14/2015 at 22:04 • 0 comments

  Dmopalmer suggested we use a load cell or scale to verify pills. The AWS-100 was suggested as a cheap scale to hack. The scale was easy to tear apart (5 screws on top and some screws for the circuit board and load cell). The circuit board seems quite simple - 6 capacitors, a resistor and a microcontroller connected to a screen, led backlight, and load cell. Unfortunately the micro is covered with epoxy and i'm no reverse engineer.

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• Project Direction - An appeal for input

  dthunes • 04/06/2015 at 23:34 • 2 comments

  I have a choice to make regarding the direction of the project, and I'd like to solicit feedback from the community. As I see it, my pill dispensing project can now go one of two ways:

  1. Universal solution (Accept most pills, from pill bottles - complex and possibly unreliable)
  2. Cartridge style (Only accept "Pill Minder" cartridges - simple, but possibly proprietary)

  Currently, I'm only planning on making a few "finished" machines - one for my grandfather (who has Alzheimer's) and one or two for family friends. But, I want to make the best product I can make, which leads me to an interesting hypothetical.

  Who is my target market, and what do I want to do with this machine? Do I want to partner with a large company like Walgreens and have my product only work with Walgreens branded cartridges? This would probably impact the largest number of people. Do I want a universal pill solution - as-seen-on-TV? My target demographic definitely overlaps with theirs. There are clear pros and cons of each choice. Please tell me what you think.

• Concept - What to choose?

  dthunes • 04/02/2015 at 19:24 • 5 comments

  Up to this point, four virtual prototypes have been made.

  1. Rotating Plate
  2. Tube
  3. Cascading Container
  4. Stacked Container

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• Concept - Containers (Stacked)

  dthunes • 04/02/2015 at 16:23 • 0 comments

  The last log details a tall, skinny, cascading storage system. This concept is a fat, short system that does not cascade. Each pill type is stored on a different level (in a veined carousel), with a shared shaft to add/remove pills. Unfortunately, this adds complexity, with a "shuttle" to access different levels (for adding pills) and possibly a second shuttle to rotate individual levels.

  I was also toying with the idea of a shake conveyor, in this case vibrating a piece of sloped angle aluminum. Below are some renderings.

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• Concept - Containers (Cascading)

  dthunes • 04/02/2015 at 16:00 • 0 comments

  This concept departs from the "store pills and dispense them one at a time" theme. Instead, doses (one or more pills) are held in individual containers. By making a rotating carousel of fins, and clever top/bottom plates, a high-density cascading system can be created.

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