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WEEK 14: NETWORKING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Day 1

The first thing I learnt today that makes me ecstatic, is what the Tx and Rx pins in a microcontroller actually do.

It’s the basis of networking, but beyond that, I’ve gotten so used to looking at things and just learning that if I make certain connections, they’ll do a certain thing but I won’t actually know why or how, beyond just the fact that they do. As the course goes on, I’ve been very slowly pinpointing what the pins in a ATTinny44 do, for instance, and the Tx and Rx had escaped me.

It may seem like a small thing, and a very obvious one for someone with a background in electronics or even basic knowledge of it, but right now I’m holding on to all the small victories I can get.

Since I’ve been mulling over how I’ll be making the movement of my origami panels, I might just try out the motor model this week, to test it out and for the sake of the exercise.

So, I’ll be making a network between microcontrollers that each manage a motor and a set of leds.

I really hope I can make this work, so that if everything else fails, meaning the other possible models of making the movement of my interactive panels (the Flexinol wire, springs, a single motor with an elastic band, etc) turn out not to be viable, then I’ll have a working Plan B in my back pocket.

Day 3

I’ve decided to stick with the motor idea for the movement of my final project, so this week I need to figure out the schematics for 9, or 10 in total I suppose, boards that will be able to control a motor each, a proximity sensor and a set of rgb led lights each.

I’ve also given up the idea of charlieplexing the leds.

The idea is to take the board design of Niels servo motor, the rgb led, try to figure out what the proximity sensor for it will be and merge them.

For simplicity’s sake, I’m thinking of using the sensor that we used during one of the Arduino classes, though I can’t remember what it’s called just now. It responds to light and it gives great analog readings. I think they were Photoresistors.

While it will most likely ruin the visual effect I wanted, it’ll be the easiest way to get quick results.

Day 5

I’m guessing I won’t have the network done by the end of the week, but I’m not too worried about it (I’m lying through my teeth). Since it’s something I’ll need for my final project, I’m working on the premise that it’ll get done eventually.

My main concern this week is to get at least one of the boards done and working so that I can reproduce them later on and then do the networking between them.

During the class Niel mentioned that it’s easier to work out the kinks in programing and hardware if there’s a separate board for each individual task. While this may sound obvious upon reflection, it hadn’t occurred to me and I’ll now be doing a board for all the motors, a board for all the sensors and a board for all the leds.

The design of the project has also changed in the past few days. That development can be seen in my Final Project Design Process.

Day 15

I’m no longer certain that my final project is going to be the origami, led interactive display I had thought of.

For that reason I’ll simply attempt to communicate via Serial Bus two of the boards I’ve already made, in this case, the Blink board that only has a single LED and a button that I made for Electronics Design week and the LED array board I did for Output week.