18. Project development

Individual assignment for this week:

• Complete your final project tracking your progress

A progress report one week before the presentation date.

What tasks have been completed, and what tasks remain?

The design and production of the electronics is done, although some ideas for modifications immediately came to mind, but I'll continue with those first ones until the end of this prototype. The idea now is just to move forward, even if I notice some ideas for development. I can't get stuck on individual things, now I need to complete the overall design. I have finished the code for the row counter, but the break reminder still needs coding. I tried to use the mill and thought I would look for information about it. I've been looking for information on using millis(), and I thought I'd use it to build the code. This is where I will probably need help, as compiling code from forums and elsewhere is not very efficient or smart.

I've been doing more experiments with the ring and the model is starting to take shape. After making a small circuit board for the LEDs, I have then modified the ring to be larger so that the circuit board will fit inside it. The shape of the ring has stayed in the shape of a crescent moon. I've also done my first experiments with the bracelet casing, most of the adjustments have been to the hole locations and the strap attachments. I got the idea to hide the wires by braiding them into a four-strand cord, and have been experimenting with that. All in all, the parts are starting to take shape, so I'm confident.

What's working? what's not?

The PCBs work, yay! Although there was a bit of a short circuit in the PCB of the bracelet, but in the end both worked as they should. I've spent some time modelling the casing, doing several experiments to find the right size casing for the bracelet, and the challenge is to make it small enough, but also big enough to fit all the stuff inside. I've decided to make the final casing parts out of resin, but I'm doing tests with pla-filament. I've had some problems printing with resin, several prints happened so that I could get one part to print successfully, another not. By extending the exposure time and increasing the density of the support, the prints got better and better all the time.

What questions need to be resolved?

How to build the break reminder code and will there be problems when combining two functionalities in the same code? What width bracelets and what material for them? What type of button and how to get the on/off switch out of the casing?

What will happen when?

I am confident that I can finish the final project over the weekend and I have already asked my friends and sister to help me make a video shooting. Then, at the beginning of the presentation week, I'll make a video and a presentation slide. The documentation is left behind, but I need to do that by the following weekend at the latest.

What have you learned?

I have learned so much. And I'm sure I'm only listing some of them now. The new things I've learned are especially in electronics and programming, although I'm sure they were "only" the basics. I've learned how to design a circuit board with Kicad and understood how to do debouncing button in hardware. I've learned so many new topics and things that take a lot more time to understand, so the learning with those things continues. In programming, I have learned some basics and I look forward to learning more. I think programming will be the next subject that I will study at least a little more.

I have also learned a lot of new things with Fusion and I like working with it and want to learn more. Luckily there are lots of YouTube videos that I can watch and learn from. If I think about all the time I've been at the Academy, everything from version control and image compression to building my own website has been new things to get used to. And there are still so so so so many interesting things to learn in these topics too. I've also learned about new sensors, and although I didn't use them in my final project, I think at some point I'm going to explore them more. Oh, and I've learned to appreciate the life I have when I can see my friends, go to the gym, cook and clean my home when I want and as much as I want. Those are the days I look forward too.