LAVATORY PROS: February 2009

Date : 8th January 2009, Thursday

Time : 10.30 – 12.00 p.m

Venue : SKTM Foyer

Title : Minutes of the first official group meeting.

Present : All Absent : None

Agenda :

1. Lennon briefly gave everyone a brief overview of our project and divided the tasks equally.

1.1. The aim of the project is to produce a toilet seat that can also display the weight of the person sitting on it. In other words, a weighing scale has to be integrated on a toilet seat.

1.2. Sia Neng Tung was appointed to be in charge of the website.

1.3. Suganthi was appointed to handle the paperwork, cash records and minutes of meetings.

1.4. Azreen was appointed to be in charge of the brochures, flyers, powerpoint presentations etc.

1.5. Elias was appointed to be the lab coordinator.

2. Everyone came up with suggestions for the group name, Finally after combining a few ideas, we agreed on the name “Otearai Pros”. Otearai is the Japanese word for toilet.

3. Log book details.

3.1. Everyone must have a log book, the pages must be numbered.

3.2. Each time a meeting/discussion is conducted and personal ideas/researches have to be written/pasted in the log book. The date and signature is required each time we add information to the log book.

4. Paperwork.

4.1. A proposal has to be handed in on the 6^th week.

4.2. A progress report will be sent in upon every presentation. There will be approximately 3 presentations before the final presentation.

4.3. A final Report will be sent in during the final oral presentation.

5. The budget for this project is approximated to be within RM 250.00.

6. This week’s aim :

6.1. Find out more about the project

6.1.1. Find out other specifications that can be added to the toilet seat to impress/attract the client.

6.1.2. Find out issues related to toilets, and weight factors.

6.2. A visit to the Electrical Store, Genius for extra ideas and guidance

6.3. Sia and Lennon will find information about microcontrollers and programming related to it.

6.4. Azreen and Elias were appointed to find information about PCB and Protel software.

7. A weekly meeting is to be held every Wednesday from 12.00-2.00p.m.

8. Everyone was told to register at the LMS website as soon as possible.

9. A short meeting is to be held on Monday, January 12, 2009 at 4.00 p.m.

Prepared by,

Suganthi

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Date : 12th January 2009, Monday

Time : 4.00 – 6.00 p.m

Venue : SKTM Foyer

Title : Minutes of the second official group meeting/discussion.

Present : All Absent : None

Agenda :

1. Lennon suggested a new name for the group. “Lavotary Pros”. The justification was simple. The name was straight to the point. People who access our website in the future will get the idea from our name. The idea was immediately accepted.

2. Everyone was given a chance to share the information they attained from the internet and other sources about the toilet seat, scale and extra specifications. Among the ideas were:

2.1. A slot for a SD card or mp3 to enable the customer to listen to music.

2.2. A fabric or cushiony material that covers the toilet seat, washable and anti-bacterial. This adds warmth and comfort to the customer. This material can have designs or patterns on it for beautifying purposes as well.

2.3. Since it is a little confusing about how a person can measure their weight while sitting on a toilet seat with their feet touching the ground, maybe the idea of the scale is just to measure a person’s body mass before and after they excrete their feces.

3. Lennon suggested that instead of creating a website which is rather a time-consuming task, it would be a better idea to create a BlogSpot. This way, customers, clients or anyone can share their views on our ideas and products in the form of a forum. We in return can reply to all enquiries etc.

4. Suganthi was told to prepare an excel sheet for accounting purposes.

5. Suganthi was given the task to fix an appointment with the client, Dr. Reyner tomorrow. She was told to make an appointment for Wednesday, 14^th January at 2.30p.m, or at a time that suites the client.

6. Lennon fixed a dateline for the website (BlogSpot) to be ready. It is to be done by Monday, 19^th January 2009.

7. Azreen and Elias were told to seek the necessary help about PCB and the Protel software from seniors, lab assistants and lecturers especially Mr. Jamal Dargham without any hesitation.

8. Everyone was told to come up with a name for the PROJECT as soon as possible.

9. We discussed the appropriate objectives of our project. According to Mr.Liau in today’s lecture, one should not have more than 2 objectives for a product. Among the suggestions were:

9.1. A toilet seat that can measure our body mass and display it on a LCD screen.

9.2. The marketability of the product.

10. Everyone was given the task to figure out the primary and secondary functions and it will be discussed in the next discussion .

11. Suganthi was given the task of learning what is FAST diagrams and explain it to the others on Wednesday.

12. It was decided that the pre-proposal on week 4 i.e. on Thursday night will be presented by Suganthi.

13. We discussed reasons WHY we are doing this project:

13.1. It’s convenient.

13.2. It’s time saving

13.3. It’s affordable

13.4. It’s working towards a healthy lifestyle (a normal healthy person should excrete an adequate amount of feces each day)

14. Everyone was reminded to come up with new ideas as we cannot copy or duplicate a product already in the market by 100%.

15. Among the topics we discussed on the components we need to use for the scale:

15.1. Creating a strain gauge

15.2. Creating a Wheatstone bridge and the strain gauge will be connecting 2 opposite resistors.

15.3. The change in the voltage will be detected by an amplifier. It will then be passed through an ADC before reaching the microcontrollers.

15.4. We need a rheostat, a low-pass filter and a LCD surface from the microcontroller.

16. According to Lennon and Sia Neng Tung, the feedback from the electrical store in K, Genius was not as expected. They apparently have no idea about the circuit and added that the LCD displaying is a very difficult task.

17. Everyone again was asked to find out more about the project from external sources and also figure out ways of placing the wiring on the seat and possible methods of obtaining the most accurate readings.

18. The meeting ended with Lennon reminding everyone to complete their log book and take down important notes during the meeting.

19. The next meeting was scheduled on Wednesday, 14^th January 2009 at 2.30p.m at the SKTM foyer.

Prepared by,

Suganthi Balakrishnan

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Date : 14th January 2009, Thursday

Time : 3.00 – 3.30 p.m

Venue : Dr.Rayner’s office, SKTM

Title : Minutes of the first official meeting with client.

Present : All Absent : None

Agenda :

1. Dr. Rayner was pleasant and greeted everyone warmly.

2. He showed us a few pictures of toilet seats made in Japan and Korea which he has previously used.

2.1. It had a remote mechanism which was attached to the toilet which had buttons for the user to self-operate. (Eg: flush, heat up seat and etc).

3. Dr.Rayner’s requirements :

3.1. Toilet seat must have a mechanism to lift up the user’s leg. The user must have a leg support in favor of accurate weight measurement.

4. Dr.Rayner’s ideas/ suggestions :

4.1 He also said that he thinks the ability of the toilet seat to produce heat and relaxation was a good idea.

5. Blogspot was impressive to him, he was happy to have a channel to feedback his ideas and comments.

6. Dr.Rayner gave us his email address : ralfred@ums.edu.my

7. His final Project Statement :

To create a toilet seat that can measure and display a person’s weight accurately

and attached with a control panel that enables data input by user.

Prepared by,

Suganthi Balakrishnan

________________________________________________________________________________________

Date : 14th January 2009,Wednesday

Time :2.00 – 5.00 p.m

Venue : SKTM Foyer

Title : Minutes of the third official group meeting.

Present : All Absent : None

Agenda :

1. Lennon told us that for the pre-proposal presentation, we will have to come up with at least 10 designs and based on individual voting we are supposed to choose the best design for our toilet seat.

2. We then discussed the questions to ask our client, Dr. Reyner when we meet him at 3.00 p.m today. At the end of the meeting we are supposed to be able to come up with our problem statement.

3. Pre-proposal necessities:

3.1. Objectives.

3.2. End user requirements.

3.3. Constraints.

3.4. Functions.

3.5. Design specifications.

3.6. Design alternatives.

3.7. Modeling and analysis

3.8. Testing and evaluations.

3.9. Refine and optimizing project.

3.10. Documentation.

4. This week’s progress:

4.1. Azreen and Elias met the lab assistant Mr. Seri yesterday. His feedback was not so convincing as he seemed a little blur about the project. But he also mentioned that we could also use P-Spice for the stimulus of this project.

4.2. Sia Neng Tung has completed the blog. All the previous year design projects also used the BlogSpot as their website. We just have to ask Dr.Rayner whether he is ok with our idea of using a blogspot as our webpage.

4.2.1. http://lavatorypros.blogspot.com// is our web address.

5. New ideas about the toilet seat scale:

5.1. Azreen and boy came up with art designs and sketches of new ways the toilet seat can give accurate measurements.

5.2. The only minus point was that the ideas they produced will cost a bomb an it requires us to create the whole toilet, not just the toilet seat.

5.3. Lennon suggested that the user should be able to enter his height and the electronic scale must be able to calculate the user’s Body Mass Index (BMI).

6. Lennon stressed that the new product should be convenient especially for the end users. We have to create something that the market wants.

7. This week’s aim :

7.1. Get the project statement.

7.1.1. Come up with the revised project statement.

7.2. Come up with the primary and secondary functions of the experiment.

7.3. Set the constraints of the project.

7.4. The design specifications must be set.

8. Names for project:

8.1. Lennon : Healthy seat

8.2. Suganthi : Multipurpose seat.

8.3. Elias : Magic Bowl

8.4. We were told to come up with more suggestions before finalizing the name.

9. Keywords for the objective of the project.

9.1. Toilet seat, Measure weight, convenient, safe, water resistant, durable.

9.2. Affordable, marketable.

10. Some of the constraints :

10.1. Cost : within RM250

10.2. Age limit of the user (eg: above 5 years old and etc)

10.3. Physical condition of user (eg. Doesn’t need to rely on extra support for sitting and etc)

10.4. Time limit. (Duration of project : determined by client).

11. Functions :

11.1. Main functions

11.1.1. Perform as a regular toilet seat

11.1.2. Measure the user’s weight

11.2. Secondary functions, (ideas)

11.2.1. Calculate BMI

11.2.2. Produce heat

11.2.3. Mp3, SD slot for music

11.2.4. Fragrance emitter

11.2.5. Toilet seat wrap for hygiene and designs for attraction

12. Some specifications :

12.1. User’s weight limit : 0 – 500 kg

12.2. User’s height limit : 0 – 999 cm → For the BMI calculation.

13. This weekend’s task :

13.1. Everyone : Check out toilet seats in the real market : KK

13.2. Everyone : Figure out mechanisms to lift legs.

13.3. Everyone : Few circuit designs for electronic weight scale.

13.4. Sia Neng Tung : Complete website.

13.5. Azreen and Elias continue with PCB

13.6. Lennon : Go through the text book and the previous minutes prepared by Suganthi.

13.7. Suganthi : Minutes.

14. The next meeting will be held on Monday at 4.00p.m.

Prepared by,

Suganthi Balakrishnan

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Technical Gantt Chart
- This Tecnical Gantt Chart describes the progress of the project.