Final Project¶
There is a lot of spiral development that goes into a final project. You can’t get everything done in the first few weeks, nor the last. You gotta keep going at a constant rate. Thats what my final project needs, at least. First, I sketched it out (see week one), then I started buying my materials just to fully visualize what I might make it out of. First, I went to McMaster Carr and saw some amazing things. The whole inside is so intricate and efficient. I ended up getting a few different types of foam from McMaster and a roll of copper sheets.
What does my final project do?¶
My final project lets a volleyball player track their serves by hanging a mat against a wall for them to serve on. It tracks the placement and force of the ball based on specific calibrations to make sure that the serves don’t go past the final line.
Who has done it before hand?¶
Many people have done capacitance sensors and almost every volleyball player I’ve met has served against a wall before, but no one seemed to connect the two things where they can be really useful. Here are some options that are similar, but not situationally better, to my mat.
- Serving against a wall (No data)
- Serving over a net (You can see where the ball lands, but you can’t always set up a net OR maintain a consistent striking pattern.)
- Volleyball Tether (Attach to you waist and to a volleyball– Lets the user server the volleyball without a net, but I know by using this that is is very hard to see if your striking pattern is actually good or not. You also get hit in the face more times than you would imagine, but that might just be me :) )
- Simulations (Well, this one is not so much related to volleyball as it is with golf. Ms. Siegenthaler helped me out a lot with my Volleyball Mat and how it can be stretched into other sports. She told me that this was much easier and cheaper to make than a 20,000 good golf software. I imagine that my mat would be a much more cost-effective system for practicing this way)
Where I got my materials¶
I got my materials from McMasterCarr, Amazon, and LCCC’s electronics repo.
Types of Foam¶
The types of foam that I got are Resilient Polyurethane Foam Sheets: Ultra Soft, 12” x 12” x 1/2” Extra Soft, 12” x 12” x 1/2” Soft, 12” x 12” x 1/4” Extra Soft, 12” x 12” x 1/4” Ultra Soft, 12” x 12” x 1/4”
I’m thinking about using the Ultra Soft 1/2” for the middle piece sandwiched between the two copper sheets and two of the Extra Soft 1/4” to sandwich everything together. This will make it easier to bend. Later on, I might switch to steel just because the force of a volleyball might dent the copper, there by making it harder to use.
Materials and Cost¶
I ended up using these different materials rather than all the ones I bought:
| Qty | Description | Price | Serial Number/Amazon Link | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soft, 12” x 12” x 1/4” | 12.35 $ | 86375K134 | Cut up into 6x6 pieces |
| 1 | Ultra Soft, 12” x 12” x 1/4” | 15.31 $ | 86375K112 | Cut up into 6x6 pieces |
| 1 | Copper Shim 6 x 50 in, .01 in thick | 22.17 $ | 9708K11 | Cut up into 6x6 pieces |
| 1 | PCB Boards | FabLab Inventory | ||
| 1 | ATTiny 45 | FabLab Inventory | ||
| 1 | 10k Resistors | FabLab Inventory | ||
| 1 | 1M Resistors | FabLab Inventory | ||
| 1 | FTDI Headers | FabLab Inventory | ||
| 1 | 2x3 Pin Headers | FabLab Inventory | ||
| 1 | 2x2 Pin Headers | FabLab Inventory | ||
| 1 | 1uF Capacitor | FabLab Inventory | ||
| 1 | Red LEDS | FabLab Inventory | ||
| 1 | Green LEDS | FabLab Inventory | ||
| 1 | FTDI Cables | 15.31 $ | https://www.amazon.com/Converter-Terminated-Galileo-BeagleBone-Minnowboard/dp/B06ZYPLFNB/ref=asc_df_B06ZYPLFNB/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309773039951&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17001095912411606454&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1023191&hvtargid=pla-599566704604&psc=1 | |
| 1 | USBTiny Programmer | 12.95 $ | https://www.amazon.com/TinySine-USBtinyISP-AVR-Programmer-Arduino/dp/B00N8EVQ30 |
From Vimeo¶
Volleyball Mat GUI from Brigette N O'Neill on Vimeo.
https://vimeo.com/343133646
Linked Weeks¶
Sites that helped me a whole lot¶
How to import libraries that never seem to import
Gustavo Deabreu’s Site on Input Boards (really well documented)
What questions were answered?¶
My intial question making this project was: “What can I do to make my serve better?” I think I’ve successfully answered that through this project.
What worked? What didn’t?¶
How was it evaluated?¶
What are the implications?¶
Presentations¶
Files¶
Eagle Networking-Output Schematic
Eagle GUI TXRX based off Neil’s Program
License¶
For my license, I think I’ll be using the MIT License. I feel that it protects my project best, though I know that it doesn’t protect all of my intellectual property. I think that for now, its a good use, but in the future I think I’ll work more with the Creative Commons and apply for different patents so if its necessary, I could bring whoever copies my product to court. In the future as well, I’d like to do more work with protecting intellectual property. As someone who has had intellectual property stolen and had to witness the thief being protected, I feel an especially strong connection to protecting it. I feel like it is basic human rights to protect thoughts and that they should be more heavily considered private property, though it is hard to considered who publish what first, but today in the modern age with digital time stamps, it’d be so much easier to financially protect others work. For example, the moving picture; first invented by Louis le Prince, but later credited to Thomas Edison. Louis le Prince’s moving pictured was dated back 3 years before Thomas Edison had even conceived of his, but alas, due to America’s poor patenting system, his moving picture device was considered to rather be a 16 lens camera and was not believed to actually hold the true power that his family and other elite had observed. After his mysterious disapperance in 1890, Thomas Edison patented his moving picture device and went on to ‘make’ many more inventions. Edison did nothing but use the patent system in America to weasle his way into filing lawsuits over his ‘original’ ideas. To me, patent is a dirty word, slashed and slaughtered by the countless large corporations and Edison himself, the one who paved the way for a patent only being a note for a lawsuit, rather than intellectual property. So, I’d like to make a proposal. Lets not call Edison or any other ‘inventor’ that used their patents to make money off of lawsuits, to make a loophole in the system to only make themselves richer and starve those under them of their intellectual property, the most important of all. Lets praise Nikola Tesla, Louis le Prince, and every single inventor with unknown names, unknown aftermaths, unknown lives feeding the faceless corporations. We see you. Make yourself known to the world.
How I’ll Keep Working¶
I plan on continuing my volleyball mat as my Compass project for the 2019-2020 school year. I’ll keep improving upon it by trying to make the communication faster, the networking easier and more user manipuable, and to leaf out the mats more. I want to be able to make an easier to user GUI and find better ways to document my progress. In the very far future, I hope to be able to create an app that can connect with the volleyball mat.