From Idea To Paper
First of all, I had to consider which data seemed pertinent to collect for my studies. The primary goal of the project was, and still is, to increase the diameter of the vial cap to allow for the introduction of more sensors. After many Google searches, I came across the company AtlasScientific®. They offer a very interesting catalog of products for collecting data online, but the most intriguing aspect was that they also provide a HAT for the Raspberry Pi. Why is this relevant? Because PioReactor’s user interface (UI) also operates through a HAT, and HATs are stackable... could I combine the best of both worlds?
The answer was yes. After talking with the Pio team, they confirmed that they had experimented a bit with Atlas’ HAT and that if I put in the effort, after several hours (which will likely turn into days), I could configure the AtlasScientific sensors in such a way that I could visualize the collected data on the PioReactor platform. Eureka! Now it was time to put everything on paper.
Several weeks passed, and I learned my first important lesson from the PS70 class: When it comes to design, less is always more. I then asked myself which elements I could eliminate from what I had in mind. The AtlasScientific HAT allows for temperature data collection, so I decided to remove the PioReactor Temperature HAT and later correlate it with the PioReactor UI.
From Paper To Fusion
Fusion is a CAD program (Computer-Aided Design) that enables ideas from your mind, initially sketched on paper, to be transformed into 3D designs. Personally, I had never used this platform before, so after many YouTube tutorials, countless hours in the Fabrication Lab, and plenty of coffee, I gradually learned to handle it.
I divided the 3D design into three parts:
Base: I wanted the base to serve both an aesthetic function, complementing the curvature of the body, and a structural one, to support the weight of the vial. Scaling up from 15 ml to 500 ml required rethinking the entire reinforcement structure.
Body: The body was undoubtedly the most complex and time-consuming part to design. Not only did it need to replicate the same angles as the Pioreactor to operate the optical density system, but the Pioreactor design itself featured highly specific details that I had to analyze with patience—and more coffee. With a larger diameter, I was able to add additional LED openings to work with both back and side scattering.
Magnetic Stirrer: The structure here was straightforward; knowing I would use 5V fans, I conducted several power tests and then designed a circle of the appropriate diameter to fit two magnets, replicating the setup used by the Pioreactor.