Day 1 and 2
Day one and two of this week were arguably some of the most productive of my time here so far. At this point I feel like I have a good understanding of how to produce quality production parts from my 3D printer. I was able to print some possible prototypes for the mechanism that pushes the insulin out of the reservoir. They all work on the same principle, so here is an example of one I am testing:
All of the extruders that I am testing are open source and on thingiverse.com .
Day 3
On day 3 I realized that I had completed all of the pieces necessary to have a crude pump except for the code that controlled the extruder. I used the python code mentioned in my last blog post, along with code to control the stepper motor, and merged the two to work together. Once I had successfully merged the two pieces of code into one python program, I used the blood sugar value that is updated every 5 minutes to control a specific amount of steps (at this point it is not calibrated, but it does work!). I then placed the entirety of the code into one big while loop that allows me to pump a desired amount based off of blood sugar values every 5 minutes for a desired amount of time. This was a huge success in my program having the code finished to the point where I can start making physical prototypes, and the project is really coming together now.
Day 4 and 5
Both of these days were fairly slow considering most of the day was spent waiting for pieces to print out. On the bright side I was able to successfully print out a screw and (basically) a threaded nut that works. For anyone who knows 3D printing knows how difficult this task really is on an FDM printer (the type of printer that I am using). This gives me hope for creating an insulin pump that is completely 3D printed aside from the Raspberry Pi and motor. One of the main issues that I have with current diabetes technology are the astronomical prices for the technology, and one of my main points in my project was making an insulin pump that is very cheap to produce, and 3D printing allows for costs to be far lower.
While I was waiting for my prints to emerge out of the build plates I kept busy with Dr. Remy setting up 3D printers that the IT department had ordered. We wanted to see just how fast we could get a printer from the box to a functioning state. We were able to achieve this task in ~51 minutes, which is pretty impressive considering how many moving pieces make up a 3D printer. Also, setting up 3D printers helps gain a further understanding of how the printers work. This is why I suggest new users to order 3D printer kits rather than fully assembled printers. For one, they are much cheaper when they are in the kit form, and you get a better understanding of how they function.
Hopefully by next week I will be able to have my first fully functioning prototype of an insulin pump which is very exciting. More to come in next weeks blog post!
