Why: As students, two classmates and I all struggled with waking up in the morning. We decided to design a device that would help wake a person up by opening the curtains and letting in the sunlight. We chose this approach because we did not want to simply replace an alarm clock; instead, we wanted to create a product that could be used commercially in places like hotels, hospitals, and assisted living facilities.

How: We brainstormed several methods for opening a curtain, including using gears and a pulley system with bike chains. During our discussions, I suggested using worm gears to rotate the curtain rod and guide the curtain rings. After evaluating our six best design ideas, we selected the worm-gear design because it offered the greatest potential both aesthetically and in terms of cost. The parts designed for 3D printing included the curtain rod sections, wall brackets, the gears that connect to the motor, and plugs for each end of the curtain rod. We used Autodesk Inventor as our CAD software. While designing the parts, I assigned specific modeling tasks to each teammate and completed the necessary calculations, along with annotated sketches showing the scale of each part, to ensure consistency across the team.

While my teammates continued developing the 3D models, I assisted them and researched the requirements for operating the motor, including the necessary circuitry and code to control its speed with a potentiometer. After confirming that the circuit and all components were functioning correctly, we assembled the system and built a mount for the curtain rod to demonstrate the working device during our presentation to a panel of engineers.

Adjustments: In our initial design, we planned to use a metal rod with a one-inch diameter, but we were unable to find one at hardware stores. This forced us to use a larger rod, which no longer fit with the pieces we had already designed, so we had to remodel them to ensure compatibility with the motor. Our biggest challenge, however, was getting our MicroPython code to run on the Raspberry Pi Pico. Finding software that worked on both school computers and laptops, while also supporting the Raspberry Pi Pico, proved difficult. After months of testing and troubleshooting, we successfully got the code running, and the motor was able to open the curtain.

Result: We successfully created a machine that opens and closes curtains with the flip of a switch.