Results & Reflections:

This project was fun, challenging, and a great learning experience.  It was especially nice to design a system that drew on many different disciplines and follow it through to conception.  This allowed us to learn a great deal about the difference between something looking good on paper and something performing well in an actual environment.  

The design and manufacturing of the project went pretty smoothly.  However, there were some initial problems that we encountered.  Our motors were not drawing the 5V that they were being supplied with and thus were running a little slow.  We also found that one step with our stepper motor turned the blinds a great deal more than we had anticipated.  These problems were corrected with relative ease, and we turned our focus to programming and aesthetics.

Ultimately, we were very satisfied with the results of this project.  It consistently worked very well with little error.  Given more time, we would have improved the overall aesthetics by adding a nicer looking housing on top and hiding all external wires.  Though our project was challenging, in retrospect it would have been nice to have designed a project that was more electrically complex.  This would have allowed us to learn more about the real world applications of electronics.  Nevertheless, we all learned a great deal about designing and building a mechatronic system.