Intellectual Property or Concept Generation Fundamentals of Engineering Design Chapter 6 (skip Chapter 5)

Methods of Design By selection of new components. Using a better or faster chip. By configuration tweaking. Moving the same components around. By tweaking the design parameters. Difference between the extra large and the family size. original concept Implementing an original concept A fundamental departure from the past.

Creative Thinking An Original Concept treats design as a creative process. You have to look at the goal… …then imagine/question how to get there. Try to visualize the steps. Write the sequence down or Draw a Functional Block Diagram (FBD) (see page 42)

The Creative Process Utilize your present knowledge. A normal combination. A unique combination. Leave blank what you don’t know. This becomes the challenge. Your questions probe the unknown. Define the limits around the unknown. List what you know vs. what you don’t. Look for the path to knowledge into the unknown.

The Creative Process Tools you can use: Focus Focus on technical information by: Reread books, periodicals, journals, magazines with this problem in mind. Attend conferences, check the library, look up patents, read up on standards. NETWORK—find out whose working on the same problem and meet them. (Review Gathering Information PowerPoint Presentation)

Applying the Creative Process Imagine yourself lost in a forest following a path and you come to a fork in the road... The work of the creative process is testing your (educated) guesses or trials. A trial is an attempt to answer a question. Guesses become solutions that lead to better questions narrowing the focus. The application or work is the many attempts you make. This is what R & D is all about.

Models of the Creative Process Fabun Model Desire Preparation Manipulation Incubation Intimation Illumination Verification Prof. Johnson’s Pathway Need Focus Utilize your knowledge base Draw the FBD Think Find the path/do the R&D Solution

Let’s Focus We’re on a project, to make a remote control soldering iron. We’ve learned a lot about how irons heat up and how to turn an AC relay on and off. We need to put everything together and design the software portion of the design.

Design Using Object-Oriented Software Going to use HPVee because it’s what we know. We’ve reviewed briefly the need, our focus, and our knowledge base. Now, let’s draw what we know as a FBD.

Our Knowledge Limit

Defining the unknown What we know How to get readings into the computer. We know the temperature. Familiar with some aspects of HPVee. Have handouts. What we don’t know How to get HPVee to turn on and off a relay. How the software makes the decision to operate the Power Supply.

Your Next Step Start the HPVee design by adding some objects in. Figure out how the Instrument Manager in HPVee talks to the Power Supply. Check for objects in HPVee that would evaluate the temperature and make a decision. (How would you do this task in C?)

In Summary Lab 9 is for you to design the software that will allow an operator to control a soldering iron and monitor it temperature. The iron stays right around 300 degrees Fahrenheit, plus or minus 10 degrees. You’ve this week to tackle the problem before we begin the next phase: Publishing a user manual. Writing a technical manual.