1. What tasks have been completed, and what tasks remain?

I changed the project few weeks before the presentation which made a lot of confusion at the end. I have designed the top portion first then designed the flexible PCB and assembled the top part of the project first. Then connected the the circuit to Arduino UNO and connected the buzzer, RTC & Motor Driver. Next step was maping the 46 LEDs and coding in arduino. After finishing the code I designed base box and made it usind 3mm black acrylic.


The working voltage of the pump is 12v which cannot be dirctly driven by arduino, so I have use either motor driver or mosfet. I was planing to use the board which I have designed output week. But the board have only one VCC and GND supply which will make the connections comlicated.

2. What has worked? what hasn't?

  • I tried to cut flexible PCB driectly on vinyl cutter, but peeling the circuit was very difficult. Then I peeled the copper sheet first an sticked it on wide tape and cut it in vinyl cutter.
  • Since my design consists of two round surfaces, I have to either bend the acrylic sheet using hot air blower or use kerf bending. 6mm acrylic bends uniformily using hot air but it is time consumig task. 3mm sheet bends easily but, it is difficult to maintain shape while bending. I used hot air for 6mm and kerf bending for 6mm.
  • The neopixel consumes lot of power & if I use all 46 led on full power, the USB power won't be sufficient and it can damange arduino.
    • For diffusing the 6mm clear acrylic, I have tried both engraving and sandblasting and fond that snd blasted part diffuses light more uniformely

3. What questions need to be resolved?

  • When should the pump turn on?
    The pump should turn on only after the buzzer beeps for one minute, if the alam is turned off in the app within 1 minit then the pump won't turn on.

4. What will happen when?

The project consits of neo pixel led alarm clock which is connected to mobile using NODEMCU. Alarm can be set in mobile app using app created using MIT app inventor, and if the alarm is not switched off within on minute, then it will trigger water pump which sprays water.

I have finished the coding and enclosure of the project on 17th june 2019. I was trial running the clock since then using arduino. My final task is to make a single board which will work on 12v supply.The board will have wifi module, RTC, mosfet for driving pump, buzzer and i2c pin out which is expected to finish by july 7th.

5. What have you learned?

  • I am a mechanical engineer and had very little knowledge in electronics and coding. After spendind 6 months for fab academy, I've learned electronics and coding.
  • I can say that the my perspestives have change after doing fab academy. If I see some product or software, I start imagining how it's made.
  • I can reverse engineer stuff.
  • Learned fusion 360 and eagle from autodesk.
  • I can design my PCB and fabricate it.
  • I can make different composites for unique uses.
  • Afeter 6 months I'm good at making a website by my own.
  • My documentation skills have improved.