When we were first starting out M.T.C. Rain, we knew that when we were going to make our first prototype, we couldn't make it on a tree. Since we couldn't test our project on a tree first, we settled on making it on a wooden plank. We planned to use a wheel from a bike on an actual tree so we decided to test it out on the plank first. Materials we used alongside the wheel were nails, a hammer, scissors, silicone, a bucket, corks, the wooden plank, paint & more.
Our First Prototype
Keicol (left) & Bharti (right) planning out how our prototype is going to look like and what it's going to do.
Nya, Bharti, & Emily (same order as the picture) nailing down the corks to the board to support the tire.
The Making of Our Prototype
It took us a total of about 3 weeks to finish our prototype and to check if it really worked.
The first thing we did to make to prototype was find a place to build on and draw a sketch. We used a wooden board and labeled the parts where we wanted things to be in pencil.
Fun Fact:
We made a total of 2 prototypes, and another one that we never continued, call the dog project. The other two projects were call the Board Prototype and the Log Prototype.
Dain and Emily applying silicone to the corks and tire so that they don't fall off.
Nya mixing the paint so that we could use it for our prototype.
This is a picture of the pump we used to get water flowing down the tree trunk to act like rainfall.
The final product of our first prototype before we painted it.
This is us working on the log prototype and applying clear silicone to the trunk.
After that, we got the materials we needed and started to get to work. As we were nailing down the bike tire, we realized that the points of the nails were being exposed, so we had to cover them up, for our
safety. We used corks to cover the points since they could easily be stabbed by something pointy. After we nailed down the tire and put corks on the points, we used silicone to make sure they were secured in place. We also used silicone to put a bucket that we cut in half at the top, which has a hole in it for water to go through. Then we got a regular bucket and put it at the bottom so that when we poured water, something would catch it. That's all we did for our first prototype and after that we started to test it out.
The Conclusion of Out First Prototype
Before we moved on to make our second prototype, we tested out our first one to see if the materials we used could go into the second. This ended in a giant puddle on the science room floor and silicone all over our hands, since we used it to make adjustments. We have videos on our Youtube channel that showed how it worked out which you find on
"Contact Us." A few days after the trials, we decided that we wanted to paint the prototype and so we painted it blue.
The Second Prototype
The first prototype that we made was just to test materials and ideas out, the second one was more to see what we can actually put on a real tree. That is why we decided to use a tree log that we got from the reservoir. We sawed off one end to be flat and kept the other one with a bump at the top. We did this so that we could zip-tie a pump at the top that will let out water to act as rain. In the old prototype, we actually had to pour water into it ourselves, but now we
have a pump that'll do it for us and we could adjust
the amount it lets out as well.
Before we added the pump, however, we applied clear silicone to the tree to put on something else. We added a thing that usually people put under their doors if they don't want cold air getting inside their house during winter. We used this at first because when the water would come
down the tree trunk, the thing would catch it, and guide it down the tree. It would do this because we wrapped it around the tree in a swirl pattern. After we finished applying that, we decided to put a tube at the top of the tree to further help the flow of the water, but not to the
bottom of the tree, but to another tube. This tube would lead the water to a container where it would be filtered. We haven't yet added the filter, but we have done trials with this prototype. We did trials on how fast the container at the bottom of the log would fill up to the top. With a hose attached, it took almost 30 minutes to fill up. However, without a hose, it only took about 11 minutes. These trials show us how we can better improve our prototype.
Emily, Nya & Bharti sawing off normal wood to make a stand for the tree trunk. Dain in the background sawing the tree trunk to make it flat.
Conclusion of Second Prototype & More
In the end, making our second prototype was more difficult to make than our first. Our second prototype is more complex than the first and we had to think through a lot more ideas than the first. We are still working on it to this day since we have to add a filter. We're still trying to plan out how to add that to the project.
Other than these two prototypes we've done, we have also worked on a third in the past. At the beginning of the project, we were working on a prototype called, "The Dog Project." This project would've been useful to dog owners whenever they walked their dogs at the park and their dogs got thirsty. We only made a small prototype for this project idea, and then we discontinued it. We haven't given up on the idea, however, but we're working to use our second prototype to do what we planned to do in the beginning. We've moved on from just thinking about dogs to less fortunate people who are just looking to drink something
Prototypes for Our Project
