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20. Project development

For my final project, I am making a wakeup alarm lamp. Wake up alarm light gently wake you up by gradually increasing the level of the light. There are a number of products on the market designed for this specific task, however, they can be very expensive. Furthermore, in Finland winters are really dark and bright lights have been shown to alleviate seasonal mood disorders So, in this project, I am trying to tackle both of these issues by making a programmable wakeup light.

What is the deadline? How much time do I have left?

My presentation is on 19th June 2019. As I was away from 11th June to 16th June, I still have lot of things to finish. Unfortunately the “Document while you work” approach does not work for me as I loose my concentration and end up wasting lot of time. In the following subsection below, I have listed down the tasks which needs to be completed. However, not all of them are of equal priority. So, I will prioritize the integration followed by slides and video presentation.

What tasks have been completed, and what tasks remain?

  • Completed Tasks

    • Most of the weekly documentation is in place.
    • 3D and 2D design
    • All the circuit boards

  • TODO

    • Following weekly documentations
      • Some parts of Input devices
      • Networking and communications
      • Interface and applications programming
    • Slides and video presentation
    • Software
    • Integration
    • Global evaluation is at 25% yet, so might have to do some more fixes

How will I complete the remaining tasks in time?

It seems difficult to finish everything before 19th June. Given that my main aim of joining the Fab Academy was to learn 3D design and fabrication, I will focus on the final project instead of the assignments. My emphasis during the remaining time will be to integrate the 3D designs with the electronics and have only a basic functionality available in the software. Furthermore, as the Bluetooth module that I had, is dead, so all the software features related to the Bluetooth module will be developed after the evaluation.

What has worked?

Related to just the final project, I have all the mechanical parts of the project. I have tested the fit of individual parts but haven’t assembled the whole thing yet. I also have working PCBs.

Overall, I now know few softwares and processes which I am definitely going to avoid (mkdocs, Eagle, PCB milling to name a few). So, in a way Fab Academy helped me in making up my mind regarding the fabrication processes.

What hasn’t?

Related to the final project, Bluetooth and phone support hasn’t worked.

Overall, I can say that the approach of “Document while you work” didn’t work at all for me. I just loose track of things if i start to document while I am doing things. Furthermore, there were just too many options to explore in a week. It is doable, if all I am only working at Fablab, not possible if I am doing it side by side with my main job. In addition, Fablab is open only in day time during normal office hours, this makes scheduling difficult. For some weeks pace is just too fast to actually enjoy the process.

What questions still need to be resolved?

Still haven’t figured out a way to control my project via phone. I can make an application for testing purposes for an android phone but as I use an iPhone, how to actually use the application for iPhone without owning a mac to compile it, is still an unknown to me.

What have you learned?

  • 3D design and printing
  • CNC milling
  • Molding and casting
  • Web development