13. Applications and implications¶

Improvements in the page¶

This week I’m going to tweak the website so it looks a little more fancy and not just practical.

The idea is to put some html in the markdown we have. And maybe I’ll tweak the css

First I’m going to make (by hand) the index of assigments in the front page so it can be helpful to go directly.

	Assigments

1. Principles and practices	2. Project management	3. Computer Aided Design

4. Computer controlled cutting	5. Electronics production	6. 3D Scanning and printing

7. Electronics design	8. Computer controlled machining	9. Embedded programming

10. Molding and casting	11. Input devices	12. Output devices

13. Applications and implications	14. Networking and communications	15. Mechanical design

16. Interface and application programming	17. Machine design	18. Wildcard week

19. Invention, intellectual property and income	20. Project development

This is from Roger webpage. And I also read his page about web development

01 - Principles and practices

Sketching the final project

And I realize that I can copy at least the icon so I’m going to use it in my webpage. I tweaked a bit the icons of the font awesome. You can find the list here

Ok, this is truly broken inside that table.

Web update

I tried to make it work by adding spaces and br tags and some line jumps. And it seem that works.

Next I’m going to try collapsible things with this

first let’s try the direct html and see if it works or explodes.

Animated Collapsibles

A Collapsible:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Collapsible Set:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

As they came they only work the section 2 and 3.

The assignment¶

We have to answer some questions about the Final project. Let’s answer them.

The project Masterpiece is an interactive system that emulates emotions through storytelling. That gets a physical form of a Monolith.

What will it do?¶

It delivers a story using a web interface and an object that you can touch. With both there is a story about how things that doesn’t seem to be alive maybe they are.

Who has done what beforehand?¶

That has many answers depending of the field:

As using replicating human emotions in inanimated objects: Pixar (the pitch for many of the pixar films could “what happens if ___ had feelings?” -toys, monsters, fish, ants, cars, thoughts-)
As being a media between videogames an boardgames. The reference is “keep talking and nobody explodes”.
As about the programming and the systems. I’m using twine2 (for now) for interfacing and libraries that go with websockets and wifi that are arduino compatible.

What will you design?¶

The gamification (game loop)
The Monolith itself (and how is built)
The electronic boards
The interface (on top of twine2)

What materials and components will be used?¶

This is not the final B.O.M. (bill of materials) but a simple list would be like this:

Plywood and acrilic for the exterior of the monolith
ESP32 board
Addresable LED (For each face)
Buzzer
Sensors for the face/buttons.
A Li-oh battery.

Where will they com from?¶

From the fablab inventory, most of them. Maybe I’ll take a spare speaker I have.

How much will they cost?¶

This is an estimate of the B O M I did afterwards:

1 plywood board 1200x2400mm 9 ~ 18 €

1 arylic board 1500x3000mm x 3 mm ~ 120 € (that was expensive)

1 barduino board ~ 10 €

1 mobile battery ~ 10 €

RGB leds ~ 28 €

Shield and other electronic components including wires ~ 18 €

Metallic paint ~ 16 €

Total: 220 €

What parts and systems will be made?¶

The physical structure.
The boards.
The interface.

What processes will be used?¶

For the Monolith I plan to mill the Monolith and lasercut (with acrilic) some parts.

For the boards, CNC milling and manual soldering.

For the programming, arduino IDE for programming and twine with websockets for the interface.

What questions need to be answered?¶

Can you guess that is a sentient being behind the Monolith once you play with it?

If the answer is yes, then I have accomplished one of the main objectives.

Can I reuse this board system to develop other kind of games?

If the answer is yes, then I have accomplished another main objective.

How it will be evaluated?¶

Well if it can do what I’m planning to do. If the system works as planned (or at least in a simplified form).

These are the points that the project has to incorporate:

2D and 3D design¶

Well, the Monolith to be produced needs to be milled and assembled so I’ll need to design it in advance. So check.

Additive and substractive fabrication processes¶

The idea it’s to mill the bigger parts and use molds for soft parts. Maybe some parts or test will be lasercut. Check.

Electronics design and production¶

I’ll produce the PCB for this project. That could be one ESP32 board or maybe an ESP32 board with multiple “face” input/output attiny boards. Check.

Microcontroller interfacing and programming¶

The project needs to display a webpage. So that’s an interface and I’ll have to program the microcontrollers. So check.

System integration and packaging¶

Well, the idea it’s not to look like a lasercut box because it’s meant to be an alien Monolith. But also needs a back door to be accessible to change the battery or debug. So checked.

Planning¶

Ok, today it’s June the 10th. I have until the first day of August to end this. So the first thing I’m going to do it’s to move the date 1 week. So I have until July 24th. Life happens.

I divided the physical part of the project on 3 stages.

1st it’s only a working “breadboard”. The second it’s a prototype in a lasercut box. The third it’s the Monolith with the pyramidal shape.

Talking with Leon instructors and Barcelona instructors they advised me that maybe go to the CNC cutting as soon as possible. I think their advise is wise so I’ll start with the box prototype.

This week I’m still doing not the final assignment but next I’m going to be full final project. That means that I’d need to have ready some files to be validated of the “ugly lasercut-box” version of the Monolith.

If possible I want also to work on the parts I do have that I have stopped because other assignments that I had left.