This week further research on liquid crystals and the components used to build the privacy glass was conducted. Additionally, a prototype of the dimmer switch was built using a variable resistor, wire, a bread board, and batteries. During construction of the prototype, the dimmer switch was tested with an LED in lieu of the privacy glass, as the polymer dispersed liquid crystal film has not yet been constructed.
Prototype dimmer switch with 6volt battery and LED to test the switch.
During class this week, the procedure was written out for the construction and testing of the PDLC film. The original plan to use panes of glass as a surface on which the liquid crystals will be fixed were modified. This was decided due to the ability of plastic to resist breaking, unlike the inert fragility of glass.
The following procedure will be used for creating the PDLC film and testing the different types of liquid crystal and polymer combinations. The procedure also outlines the process of finding the ratio of liquid crystals to polymer. This ratio is important in forming the proper size bubbles that will block or let in light within the privacy glass. Once the correct ratio has been found, different polymer types will be tested to find the one that works best as a solution to the problem.
In the upcoming class this week, the above procedure is expected to be successful, but as any experiment goes, there will most likely be unaccounted problems that will cause changes to be made in this procedure.
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