20. Project development

Final Project

All the detials of my final project can be found is this link.

What tasks have been completed, and what tasks remain?

The idea and the concept of my final project was clear from the beginning. Therefore, from the first two weeks I have set a plan and mapping each assignment to do a specific task for my final project.

However, I have not stick to the plan 100% as in some assignments I had to learn more about the topic and spend more time in learning and getting the experinces. In electronics and programming assignments I have worked faster than in designing assignments. That because I already have a background in electonics but in in CAD therefore I spend more time to learn. The remaining things in my project is:

1- design the final box for the device as well as the handle

2- design and print the final tube

3- cut the parts with laser cutting machine

4- testing all the components, sensors and circuits togather and edit the programming

Here is the Gantt Chart (plan) that I have set to complete the final project

What has worked and What hasn’t?

My LCD is working fine but now I have to program it to display the sensors values instead of a fixed sentences. My main circuit is working correctly so it is capable to controll the components that will be connected to it. Nothing went wrong but more testing need to be done.

What questions need to be resolved?

I am thinking about the powering of the device. I need the device be portable, small in size and light in weight. However, I have many components connected to my main ciruit and they take a lot of current (LCD, pressure sensor, LEDs, and so on). I need to find small and light battery with big capacity to run the device at least 5 hours.

What will happen when?

I will start by finalizing the components that we be attached to my main board. After that I will test all the components togather and make the final programming. This might take 4 days. based on that I will design the box of the device. Designing and cutting the box may take 3 days max. Then, then I will move to the tube design and printing it with the 3D printer. While the tube is printing, I am going to assemble all ready parts.

What have you learned?

I have learnt about the time managment. I have spend too much time in the beginning doing a research about my topic. I learnt that I need to balance between the actual work and the research work. I learnt also that testing is very important stage while working on a project. We have to test each component first and each code we write before building the whole thing so we can know where is the error and how to fix it.