A2 Project

[aghastpumpkin]

I have just received approval with proviso from the examination board about my D.T Product Design project idea.
My idea is this.
Coffee tables are often simply just that. They are essentially usually a poor use of space, and only really suitable for larger living rooms. My idea is to re-invent the coffeee table by implementing several combined features that will give it a new lease of life and offer a better living room solution. How will I do this?
I am considering putting a basic media centre PC into the table. This will give the coffee table a new name, acting as a central hub to all entertainment needs. It will house storage for magazines, remote controls and newspapers. It will have an "Junction", basically a set of connections for people's MP3 players and cameras. It will also have space for a Digital Set Top box, and will also house a sub woofer.
This is going to be difficult, but it is possible. I am by nature fascinated by product design. Frequently people see me eyeing up things like pens, Notepads, mice, speakers etc analysing them and thinking of ways of improvement.
What is most likely is that the table will be smaller than traditional, and be of a more solid nature. It will also hold the above items in a discreet nature.
The sub-woofer will be a convention job from Richer sounds. It will then probably be fixed inside the table in a corner, or the centre.
The PC components will be small and take up a small amount of space. This is because I will use the smaller Micro ATX boards, and rather than fixing in components conventially they will be fixed wherever there is space. There will be one hard drive, one PSU and one optical drive. Hence it won't take up much room.
Now, why am I posting here about this? It's going to be July 2006 until it's finished. The reason is I would like to share this as it goes along with you.
I also am required to obtain "Professional" and client input. If any of you have fabrication, furniture, or computer hardware as your profession I would love you to help me and offer advice and feedback. This is also great coming from everybody else, but I need to pay particular heed if any of this is your profession.
Hopefully soon I will have some ideas in the pipeline which I'll tell you about. I'll also keep you updated. I hope it goes well...wish me luck. And please give me any advice, tips or anything!

[Gizmo]

Looking forward to seeing your project, AP. This should be cool.

I'm sure there are a number of folks around here who can make suggestions.

[aghastpumpkin]

Thanks gizmo, I'm looking forward to it as well. It's going to be a lot of fun.
I have acres of research etc that needs to be done first, so I apologise if anyone is expecting some results soon. The target is to start models etc in November, possibly October.
Research can be fun though, and that's part of why I'm posting about it here. It's not hard to see the kind of pedigree and experience lurking on AOA, and I know some of you guys are going to be a great resource! Hopefully!

[Daniel ~]

This should be very interesting! Thank you for taking us along on your expedition... here comes the new! ":O}

[aghastpumpkin]

Today I set out my time plan on a chart, for the next few months. My research and analysis and design will take me up until November.
Already, before any design has taken place, I have spotted a potential problem.
Say it is set in concrete to incldue electrics. How am I going to connect these up to the mains and other devices, if the table is in the middle of the room? I have heard of wireless transmission devices but these are incredibly expensive.
I will have to think about this one!

[BobRoss]

Sounds like a great Idea Mr. pumpkin. I had a thought while I was reading it. You may be able to take hints from ****tail table video game cabinets. There are a bunch of sites about diy ****tail cabinets and modding existing ones. I realize it is different but it is along the lines of putting electronics inside furniture.

[BobRoss]

It's funny that it censored "****tail".

[aghastpumpkin]

:-D Maybe if you seperate the word with stars it'll show.
I remember seeing a similar project on a modding site. I cannot remember what site. If anyone knows what I mean please let me know. It is a site which frequently showcases peoples new PCs. A project they once did involved putting a PC inside a remote control vehicle.
The project I'm thinking of invovled the same thing as me and some guy did it and each layer of wood was seperated by acrylic which glowed.

[aghastpumpkin]

Well, I'm still in the research phase, a lot of which is being done during the Summer Hols. I'm taking a trip on my own to Ikea in Crawley, to have a look at what they have and to look at current items.

[calgar]

heh, Ikea isnt exactly the best place to look for design innovation!

how about peltier drink cooler/warmers?

[Kaitain]

Originally Posted by aghastpumpkin

If any of you have fabrication, furniture, or computer hardware as your profession I would love you to help me and offer advice and feedback. This is also great coming from everybody else, but I need to pay particular heed if any of this is your profession.

I don't think throwing up monstrous chemical plant really counts, but I rather like your idea. It's fairly similar to one I had some time ago but never really developed. Some things that spring to mind from your post (numbered for reference).

1) As BobRoss has pointed out, drop into your local pub and take a look at one of those cokctail tables with video games or embedded TV screens in them. They'll give you a lot of pointers about construction of these things. Bar SW4 on Clapham High Street has several.

2) If you are planning to use it as both a coffee table and a media centre then you need to give some thought to keeping things that don't like to mix from mixing. Most especially, beer or cola from electronics. The cokctail table I examined was to all intents and purposes sealed, but had a blower into and out of the unit that was ducted vertically from almost floor level. This meant that in the event of beer spillage, you'd frag the fan but not the rest of the computer.

In the media centre environment, where you're offering jacking points for mp3 players, you will have exposed terminals at risk of getting a soaking. You'll need to think carefully of where to put them and how to shield them.

3) Subwoofers in the middle of rooms don't tend to sound very good. They work better when they're bouncing the sound off a solid wall. If you opted to build a drinks cabinet in place of a coffee table, it would solve your power routing problem as well

4) Wireless LAN cards are cheap now. There is no such thing as wireless power transmission -- at least not such that you'd want in a home environment.

5) Input to the system. Are you going to make an automatic system that plays whatever's stuck into it? Or make it more PC-like? If the latter, give some thought to how to get input into it - wireless keyboard? Or waterproof membrane keyboard on a shelf?

6) Getting heat out of the system.

7) Display. TFT screen under perspex? CRT under glass? 2.4GHz media transmitter to a TV? Remote login/VNC?

8) Transport and maintenance. What will it take to move this thing? Or are you going to design it so that it can be slung on the back of a truck?

9) Price. Schools will sponsor A level projects to some level, but I doubt they'd stretch to this. Suggest you cost out all the options well before you do the detailed design. Consider using salvage parts.

10) Time. A level projects take a hellishly long time. Some of my school friends were putting in 60 hour weeks to get their tech projects in on time. You get better marks for turning out a less ambitious project that is fully completed, documented and on time than for turning in half a project that'll be Earth-shattering when it's done. As such, it's a good reflection of real life A good free time and resources manager is GanttProject

11) Yes I know that cokctail is misspelled. I preferred the spelling mistake to the stars.

[skool h8r]

You said wireless. Well you could transfer the electricity through air using static charge. You might have seen people who claim to be able to power lights in midair, they use static to attract it. A van de graph generator can do this but they are expensive.

Hmm, it is going to be quite a problem. As for data, use some form of bluetooth if possible. Even though it's range is limited, it has got a good enough range for an average room. Maybe you could use laptop drives for parts of it to keep it more compact. Even use the Screen and place it in the table surface. You probably know more about these things than me. But otherwise, excellent choice of project.

[Kaitain]

You missed the second part - "at least not such that you'd want in a home environment." I've been zapped by a small van der graf generator... they hurt! Other ways are to transmit the power as tight-beamed microwaves, but the thought of having my legs cooked as I walk around the room is not really my idea of fun.

With respect to electrostatic lighting, this at best creates a dull glow - you only produce a few watts of power with this sort of charge... it's enough to excite a flourescent strip but not enough to power a computer.

[skool h8r]

It's all about frequencies though. If you could make a transmitter that doesn't interfere with other frequencies, then you'll have an ideal solution. that's for data. As for power, they all have to plug in somewhere so the only way i can think of is by having a long power lead. MAybe you could just build a media centre into a wooden box (no, not a coffin XD) and paint it. I just don't know.

[Aedan]

Bluetooth is pretty slow on the connectivity front. WiFi is better suited and has better range (for Pre-N devices at least). You still have the power problem to overcome - big battery that needs charging up overnight

[aghastpumpkin]

I am so sorry, I missed all of this great stuff!
Kaitain, your points are extremely useful. I have bookmarked the GanttChart project page, I already have done a Gantt chart but this looks interesting.
As for cost, well, I get £120 a month EMA so that will be useful.
Because of the Summer Holidays, I have done little. However a visit to Ikea today not only fixed up some furniture for my bedroom but gave me some ideas and was useful for looking at current trends and manufacturing techniques.
Hopefully in September design work will start Pronto! and I will get down to business. I like the idea of looking in a pub, will have a look tomorrow evening.

Cables. Hmm. If people were to position the coffee table to the right of the TV and not too far in front of it, a power cable might only need to go across a small 1 metre gap, then follow the contours of the wall.
Most houses have living rooms where any sort of coffee table would sit reasonably close to the fireplace and mantlepeice. Allthough a power cable is not ideal, a cable could be cut up, turned into a flat cable and then people could possibly tuck it under rugs etc.

[Daniel ~]

DISK SPACE! Some where to stash CD/DVD's would be convenient.

[danrok]

What you would have to do, on a ground floor concrete floor is pull up the carpets, chase out a channel using a diamond wall chaser and a chipping hammer. Then cut out a hole for the back box of the socket. Fit the cable and sockets. Concete over the cable and you're done.

You might be able to come up with something similar to how underfloor heating is fitted on existing floors.

See here:
http://www.buildingdesign.co.uk/elec/t2/t2.html

But bear in mind that there are new laws regarding this and you can't legally do this stuff as a DIY project in the UK now.

New cabling has to be installed by a certified electrician.

[Kaitain]

Offices, hotels and the overwhelmingly pretentious have floor-mounted sockets; the ones with the covers that pop up at inconvenient moments tripping you up on the way back from the bar. That's my excuse anyway.

I wasn't going to suggest those since I rather doubt the average house-owner wants a brass square slap in the middle of his shag-pile.

[aghastpumpkin]

I may have to forget anything electronic altogether.......!!!!!!!!