20. Project development

The Nimbus project

The Plan

My plan from the beginning was to determine a final project idea, and use the weeks assignments to either produce the components needed, or learn the skills to produce the components. I’m going to be using many different processes for the Nimbus:

  1. Base of lamp - CNC machining

  2. Bottom cover of lamp - Laser cutting

  3. Ultrasonic sensor mount - 3D printing

  4. Electronics components - Electronics design, production, input devices, output devices, embedded programming, and networking

Once those are completed, I’ll build upon those concepts and refine them. Then I’ll focus on the final integration and packaging of the project. The endgame being to produce a finished product that doesn’t look like a project. Even though I have no plans on mass producing or selling these, I want them to look and behave like a commercial product.

Completed tasks

  1. Designed and machined the base of the lamp
  2. Modeled and 3D printed the HC-SR04 mounting bracket
  3. Wrote, debugged, and complied the code for the interactive lightning storm
  4. Built a functioning beta prototype
  5. Finished the presentation slide and video (using the beta prototype)
  6. Designed, cut, and fabricated custom circuit boards using ATtiny84’s
  7. Successfully programmed the first custom board with an HC-SR04 range finding code
  8. Successfully programmed the second custom board with the lightning animation code
  9. Performed live project demonstration

Remaining tasks

  1. Network the two custom boards to allow communication for the interactive feature
  2. Fabricate a better “cloud” core
  3. Finalize the internal packaging of the electronic components
  4. Finish the weekly assignments

What has worked?

  1. The ATtiny84 microcontrollers can perform that tasks I need them to
  2. Machining the base out of machinable foam made for a much more stable platform than I thought it would
  3. The delay in completing the electronics assignments allowed me to come up with the modular board design that can be used for numerous assignments and the final project

What hasn’t worked

  1. The ATtiny1614 wouldn’t work for my application.
  2. Vacuum-forming the internal support structure of the cloud
  3. Losing access to the FabLab and trying to complete projects from home
  4. Trying to design circuits when you don’t have access to the inventory for parts numbers and reference

Unresolved questions

  1. What will be done for wildcard week and can I integrate it into my final project?
  2. Does the ATtiny84 actually support I2C communications?
  3. .....

What will happpen and when

  1. Networking and communications: June 3
  2. Application and interface programming: by June 6
  3. Final project packaging: by June 16

Knowledge gained

Much knowledge was gained during this process. I’m confident in my abilities to perform most of the processes in the lab without supervision. I think that more knowledge was gained from the reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic. That caused a massive setback for projects that is still trying to be recovered from. Being separated from the FabLab and the support it and the people provide made it difficult to work on or even focus on the assignments. Not only that, there was an emotional toll taken that can’t even be quantified. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work on the pandemic response for my area. I spent 60+ hours a week for nearly two months developing and refining 3D printable PPE face shields. Our FabLab produced over 10000 face shields for our county and donated every single one.

If I’ve learned anything, it’s that time management during a pandemic lockdown is a skill set that I was lacking. This process has taught me better ways to manage my time, especially when I have multiple activities going on at the same time. I have learned how to optimize my A,B,C/1,2,3 method I discussed in my Project management page. I had to learn how to balance the rigorous pace of Fab Academy, a full-time job, and my own personal responsibilities. I applied my method to all aspects of my life. Even my eating and sleeping routines were included, even though there was little sleep to be had. This has been arguably the busiest time of my life. Learning to balance everything while keeping to a schedule has been difficult. Finding overlapping activities, activities that can be automated, and what can be completed concurrently via parallel development increased efficiency greatly. Being persistent pays off as well. I have developed the skill of documenting as I work as well. That was extremely difficult at first, and caused slowdowns in the process of completing the assignments. Now, however, it’s a skill that I’ve become quite adept at. It’s especially useful now because we have to migrate classes online, which require tutorials and documentation to replace the in-person lecture time that is now getting lost. And, from a technical stand point, I have learned not only how to use the equipment and processes in the FabLab, but I’m confident that I can teach others as well.

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