Technology Project Ideas – Problems?

You want to be part of this, I can sense it.
Basically, it’s me last year in school, one final fling before I hit the big bad world of real life. But before I’m set free, I’ve an A Level Technology project to design and make, amongst other things.
I can make your dreams reality.
Basically I can make anything, preferably no electronics, as we wont get any marks for that, but otherwise, anything, far and wide. I’m doing Product Design, so the focus is on an ‘innovative’ and qwerky product to solve a problem.
If you can think of anything, anything – a better phone case, a new bike rack, a better water bottle, a revolutionary toothbrush, a seat to sit on while you brush your teeth, a bib so you don’t slabber over your shirt when you’re brushing your teeth etc. your ideas would be truly invaluable. What problems do you face in everyday life?
I’m afraid we are a new syllabus, so I can’t give any previous examples, but fire on nonetheless.
I did a Reevu[/url] style bicycle helmet idea for my GCSE design project and we didn’t have to make it back then, so it’s a potential option for A2, but there’d be a few expensive materials to be used and some complicated shapes.

Many thanks.

Nice pitch davemonty. Don’t have any useful ideas, but hopefully this subtle bump will assist.

a public bike rack that just needs a padlock to secure bikes instead of people needing a D lock, chain etc. Must be tamper-proof and as secure as a decent D-lock when coupled with a decent padlock.

ie any hinges and the padlock area need to be protected. Metalwork needs to be hard to crop/cut.

‘bubble wrap’ style liner for baths but with big cells for comfort and insulation. Include LEDs that change color for no extra marks, but will look awesome in chav households.

Something that enables numpties like me to convert to tubeless faff free

Am I the only one who thinks this kind of question is simply trying to re-invent the wheel?

A round thing that will enable large objects to ‘roll’ across terrain, oh, hang on a mo…..

Maybe some sort of stand to rest your handlebars on when you turn your bike upside down? It could stop you from getting your grips dirty, and stop the bike from tipping over while you work on it?

Am I the only one who thinks this kind of question is simply trying to re-invent the wheel?

not how I see it.

When I did GCSE D&T I designed and built a small drill press for a hobby drill as back then all you could get were flimsy ones that were no good for milling and for my design I designed my own diamond truing lathe for electric motors as all the ones I had used had problems.

When I used have to do the brainstorming bit I thought it was pointless and back then there was no internet so it was pretty much a case of going through the RS catalogue etc. Now I can see why they made us do the brainstorming/ideas/current items thing and use the same approach when designing new equipment.

On a more serious note, I do like the idea of something to provide secure bike parking in town centres or at railway stations, schools etc. that doesn’t require each cyclist to lug around several large locks.

Something to stop my headphone cable getting tangled up (with minimal faff).
Protective (sun)glasses case which doesn’t take up more room than absolutely necessary (e.g. some sort of semi-flexible sheet so that it can be tightly wrapped, but prevents scratches/arms being ripped off).
Anti-light-switching-on-in-bag-and-draining-batteries device.

Finding the problem is the difficult part IME. Most of the time you can say a) yes, a solution is fairly simple and can be done this way or b) it’s a hugely complex issue which is why nobody’s solved it.

My suggestion would be to look at specialised areas and try and work out what problems they have and deal with every day without really thinking about it or noticing. Or where something exists in one field but inexplicably doesn’t in another.

For bikes, all I can think of off the top of my head that would be good but doesn’t seem to exist is a bike version of a gunson easibleed.

a public bike rack that just needs a padlock to secure bikes instead of people needing a D lock, chain etc. Must be tamper-proof and as secure as a decent D-lock when coupled with a decent padlock.

This. You’ll be rich and famous and adored by women.(*) Go for it.

(* – middle-aged IT managers on a web forum)

Also, bugger that, it’s early September, have you missed FaF week?

Good luck with the project, Id suggest trying to find a genuine problem and then think of a product to solve it. Its a better approach than trying to thin of a wacky product first, as Im sure you know.

Heres a product Ive just designed for my product design degree http://www.liferingrocket.co.uk/

Awesome, really helpful response, thanks.
Not disregarding any of the other ideas, but the public bike rack is a good one, I like that.

Way may be reinventing the wheel to a certain extent – innovation is a myth and all that, but unfortunately it must be done to get some marks!
Faf week didn’t happen. Some other schools started theirs’ at the end of last year supposedly, so we’re on the back foot. Clever teacher pressure/motivation

Keep them coming if you can!

Bike rack for small house?
Sort of hanging store thing keep it all out of the way? Maybe slide in/out with a method of keeping the walls clean and maybe a winch to avoid lifting etc?

Might go and do that one myself 🙂

OT
We’ve an AGA and one of the things about cooking on it is the need to store (often hot) shelves – how about a simple storage rack, that could sit next to it?

I designed my own diamond truing lathe for electric motors as all the ones I had used had problems.

RC car/plane motors by any chance? 😉

With our country’s current foreign policy insisting that hundreds of soldiers come home with limbs missing, how about something to assist them (some of them). Tooth brush theme could be a start – something along the lines of personal grooming that makes the whole process of washing and dressing slightly less arduous for these guys?

Might be too ‘specialist’ at your stage of study but could be honed as you go through education/work. It could, if treated properly, even lead to income and employment for you dragon’s den style….

Just a thought

I want a duffel bag where wheels and a hitch fold out of it and I can tow it behind my bike as a trailer. And it must cost a lot less than £400 as the currently available ones seem to.

Re bike storage – lockers are cropping up all over the SE now at train stations. There are not many of them, but that’s hardly a design problem.

RC car/plane motors by any chance?

Cars 🙂

I stopped just before brushless came out. Used to have regular chats with a guy in the UK who was trying to get the BRCA to allow brushless – he used to build his own.

I want a duffel bag where wheels and a hitch fold out of it and I can tow it behind my bike as a trailer. And it must cost a lot less than £400 as the currently available ones seem to.

Such a thing exists? wants

I’m sorry to drag this up again, but it’s Sunday night, what else have you to do eh? 😉
Current thoughts are that I like the public bike rack idea, but it’s going to be a huuge amount of manufacturing large pieces of material, something smaller and more intricate would be more up my street.

At the minute I’m kind of thinking of taking a normal A4 lever arch file, changing the mechanism up a bit(so that it doesn’t break so easily), adding a restockable to do list that folds out, possibly a pop up desk-tidy, spaces to keep pens, pencils etc., a memory stick that would slide out on an extension cable so you’d never leave it in the computer, thermochromatic outer cover to look nice when the heat of your hands touch it etc.
Aimed at school kids mostly, would save you lugging around a huge bag all day, and keep all your stationary and things you need organised in the one place.

Just if there’r any more sparks of genius floating about out there tonight, send them in my direction if you please 🙂

when I was at school some of the other kids made desk top pen holders…..ie what I am saying is the folder thing sounds a bit lame. Get yourself some steel box section, learn to weld (will be useful) and make use of the automatic cut off saw to save you doing all the chopping 😀

My problem:

I have a driveway off a small (but busy enough) village road. I want to put gates across the entrance. These will need to open inwards to the property. There is a rise on the driveway from the entrance up the drive of c12″ over c8ft.

I either live with a massive gap under the gate (ugly and not much use and keeping my daughter away from the road) or devise some sort of robust rise and fall system. Oh, and if you want to electrify it be my guest..!

It’s simple physics, but needs to look OK.

I know I know I know, lame idea.
Have a couple of nice concepts that don’t involve large bits of metal for the bike rack, so will probably go with it.

One last bid for any ideas?

Omitn:

^^ that is exactly what came to mind for me too!

My problem: I have a driveway off a small (but busy enough) village road. I want to put gates across the entrance. These will need to open inwards to the property. There is a rise on the driveway from the entrance up the drive of c12″ over c8ft. I either live with a massive gap under the gate (ugly and not much use and keeping my daughter away from the road) or devise some sort of robust rise and fall system. Oh, and if you want to electrify it be my guest..! It’s simple physics, but needs to look OK.

Easy, just use adjustable field gate hinges

Like this but – obviously – with nice gates

I want a duffel bag where wheels and a hitch fold out of it and I can tow it behind my bike as a trailer. And it must cost a lot less than £400 as the currently available ones seem to.

Such a thing exists? wants

Carryfreedom City Trailer

My problem: I have a driveway off a small (but busy enough) village road. I want to put gates across the entrance. These will need to open inwards to the property. There is a rise on the driveway from the entrance up the drive of c12″ over c8ft. I either live with a massive gap under the gate (ugly and not much use and keeping my daughter away from the road) or devise some sort of robust rise and fall system. Oh, and if you want to electrify it be my guest..! It’s simple physics, but needs to look OK.

get some L shaped hinge brakekts (no idea what they’re called), figure out what plane the open and closed positions are in (i.e if the gate was lying over at an angle it would open properly, but look a bit daft leaning over forewards towards the road) install the gatepost perpendicular to this plane (i.e upright, but assuming your description is correct it’ll lean out to the road about 1″ in every 18″). Attach the L-shaped bracket to the bottom of the gate so that gate is upright when closed, the top gets a normal ‘i’ shaped bracket and when it opens it should swing up.

A padded waterproof “jiffy bag” for putting dslrs in when you chuck them in your rucksack as an alternative to wrapping it in your jkt.

Helmet mount for iPhone for low risk gopro type filming?

Tinas – the problem with that is that if there’s anything more than a slight gradient it’ll slam shut with quite a lot of force!

For those who answered my Q, some googling suggested offset hinges (though the open gate will look weird.

So, a nice hinge system that provides the lift during the sweep of the gate, but looks neat when gate is both open and closed.

Something to do with gas struts is my guess.

I might botch something.