WEEK 20

Final Project Development

Development

My final project presentation is set for the 18th which gives me about a week to finish. I've been changing my mind about what I wanted to make for the final up until the last minute. I was beginning to work on the cymatic speakers, but at some point I felt I had to best honest to what my capabilities were. I didn't think at this time that it was something that I could make for the final and I opted to make something else. I hope that it will be something I can make sometime at a later date.

The 3d print and mold worked out great. The first cast I did not look great, but I had better luck with the second one.

There is still a lot that needs to get done. I've attempted at making some PCBs, but so far they have all been failures. I was having some problems with the mill, as it was acting very strange. A worker told me that if I made my PNG in Photoshop that the mill will sometimes have problems reading them, and he advised using Paint. I had been using Photoshop the whole class and have never had a problem, but making my PCB for the finals, the Roland was giving me a lot of grief. When I switched over to paint, I was able to cut with *fewer* problems.

I've been able to get some basic programming for the neopixels and designing for the glass completed. I have been able to get the neopixels and capacitive sensor to work with the Arduino, using the code, so now I have to complete the PCBS and test on my own board.

What will be the most challenging for me is the coding. I need to figure out howw to get the acccelerometer to integrate with the pair of the neopixels. Also I think I may need to look for alternative power sources. Originally I was going to use a 9v, but I think it may be too thick. The PCBs & batteries will located in the between the two ends of the glass, so there is limited space. I may need to use a a 3.3v battery with a step up voltage coverter to get this to work.