Week 20 - Project Development

Presentation slide and video for my final project

Week 19 - Dissemination

My dissemination plan, and drafts of my final project presentation

Week 18 - Applications and Implications

My plan for a final project.

Week 17 - Wildcard Week

For wildcard week, I’m testing different approaches, including composites, for making my final project casing.

Week 16 - More Machine Building

Building a polargraph plotter. Part 2: testing, machine control and iteration

This is a group project with Paul and Sophie. Our group docs are here.

Week 15 - Machine Building

Building a polargraph plotter. Part 1: the physical parts

This is a group project with Paul and Sophie. Our group docs are here.

Week 14 - Networking and communications

Tests of I2C communication on Arduino (and DIY Arduino-style) boards

Week 13 - Application interfaces

I’m working towards combining the elements of my final project, in this case, starting with connecting an SD card reader and LCD screen to my board, and displaying information from the SD card on that screen.

Week 12 - Output Devices

I made a second version of my input devices board, with a simplified design, and a header set up for I2C communication with an OLED display.

Week 11 - Input Devices

This week, I decided to use the assignment to prototype part of my final project. FOr that, I’ll need to read a bank of switches (mechanical or photo-interrupts) to identify a particular media card. The board needs to be able to read, say, 10 switches simultaneously and convert that into a number between 0 and 1023, sending it back to a computer over a serial connection. For this project, I decided to use a microcontroller with plenty of input pins, the ATMega32U4.

Week 10 - Molding and casting

Designing objects in 3D, making molds on the desktop CNC milling machine, and casting parts.

Week 9 - Program your board to do something

Programming boards with as many different programming languages and programming environments as possible

Week 8 - Make something big

Making furniture-sized pieces on the flatbed CNC router

Week 7 - Redraw the echo hello world board, with extra components

Now we’re learning the tools that generate the designs to mill our own boards. In effect, the step before last week.

Week 6 - 3D printing and scanning

Bits to atoms with the 3D printer, and atoms to bits with the 3D scanner

Week 5 – Making a PCB

This week, we’re using the milling machine (a Roland MDX-50) to mill circuit boards and then solder on components

Week 4 – Computer-controlled cutting

This week, there are 3 assignments using the 2D cutting machines.

Week 3 – Model a possible final project

This week I’ve been learning some different 3D design software packages and also working through some basic design problems with my current idea for a final project - a food dehydrator.

Week 2 – Work through a git tutorial and build a personal site in the class archive

This week was about building and deploying my project website. There were two tasks, learning the version control system, Git, and making the project site. Git was all new to me, but I’ve been writing HTML for about 20 years, so I decided to try something different there: a static site generator.

Week 1 – Plan and sketch a final project

We start at the end, by sketching ideas for a final project. I didn’t start Fab Academy with a project in mind, so I’ve tried to come up with something that I’m interested in now; maybe I’ll change course later on …