16. Applications and implications¶
(Final project planning)
What will it do?¶
As part of our joint project. I will be focusing on a wireless notification/pager system. We build a printing press for DIY merchandising at concerts or events. Part of the system is a series of wireless pucks that tell the customer when his print is ready to pick up. It resembles the systems used in some restaurants to notify you when your order is ready. The system uses a sender station that can talk to different pucks wireless via Lora (or wifi). The pucks have an internal timer code and notify you by means of flashing RGB leds and a vibration motor. The design and look is inspired by the arc reactor of Iron Man.
The sender station lets you connected to a webpage to control it. It uses an ESP chip to serve the webpage as a standalone wifi access point. From a smartphone or tablet you can send a message to each puck. To set the amount of time and the color of the leds and start the countdown procedure.
Final aim is to have a system with around 30 pucks and and a base station to control them via web interface on an standalone hotspot. Pucks will use a wireless recharging station. The pucks need to be strong to be used on events. So plan is to cast them in epoxy or PUR or maybe in a silicone.
Who’s done what beforehand?¶
I found some projects that work on the same kind of thing. But they are somewhat different than how we do it. Also there are the commercial restaurant pagers.
The main difference with ours is that we send them a command to start internal timer and then run standalone. We plan to include some kind of monitoring, to check if they are still running and counting.
https://github.com/baycom/rps
https://circuitdigest.com/microcontroller-projects/arduino-smart-restaurant-menu-ordering-menu-ordering-system
https://hackaday.com/2019/03/24/custom-lora-pager-designed-with-care/
What will you design?¶
- housing for the puck
- pcb/electronics of the puck
- pcb/electronics of the sending station → todo
- housing of the sender → todo
- sender code
- receiver code
- html interface website
What materials and components will be used? Where did they come from? what do they cost?¶
| material | suppliers | price |
|---|---|---|
| pcb blanks | Rs components/ pollin electronic | 6 euro |
| Pla filament | Trideus | 20euro/spool |
| silicone | Voss chemie | 219 euro/10kg |
| epoxy | Voss chemie | 14 euro/500gr |
| birch plywood | hannsens hout | 15 euro/sheet |
| electronic components PUCK: | ||
| vibration motor | recycled | 0 |
| Neopixel | banggood | 1€ |
| lora module | amazon | € 13,49 |
| tiny1614 | Rs components | 0,5 € |
| 3V regulator | Rs components | 0,3 |
| transistor MMBTA14 | Rs components | 0,083 |
| resistors | Rs components | 0,06 |
| capacitors | Rs components | 0,2 |
| led | Rs components | 0,2 |
| headerpins | Rs components | 0.5 |
| electronic components SENDER: | ||
| esp8622 12E | amazon | 4€ |
| switch | Rs components | 0,6 |
| button | Rs components | 0,6 |
| neopixel?? | banggood | |
| 3V regulator | Rs components | 0,3 |
| resistors | Rs components | 0,06 |
| capacitors | Rs components | 0,2 |
| led | Rs components | 0,2 |
| headerpins | Rs components | 0.5 |
| lora module | amazon | € 13,49 |
| 3.7V lipo battery | amazon | 10 €/piece |
What parts and systems will be made?¶
- board and electronics for receivers
- board and electronics for sender
- housing receiver, mold and cast, 3dprint prototype
- housing sender, laser cut
- lora code for sending and receiving
- esp code for serving html interface
- html/javascript interface
Spiral 1 :
- try our esp and Lora, bleutooth to decide what to use in the boards.
- build basic code
Spiral 2 :
- test lora and code on wemos D1 boards and arduino.
- start building web interface
- start 3D design for pucks
- start kicad board design
Spiral 3 :
- mill pcb’s and solder them
- 3D print puck housing and test fit
- Look into materials for final pucks or method of producing
- look into system to wireless charge the pucks
Spiral 4 :
- finalize sender code and webpage
- design and make mold to cast rubber bumper
- cast silicone bumper
- finalize receiver code
- finalize puck housing
- design and build sender housing, laser cut out of plywood or acrylic
Spiral 5:
- make mold to cast pucks in epoxy
- cast pucks
- design and make wireless charging station
What processes were used?¶
- 3d design and printing
- 3d milling
- silicone mold making
- epoxy casting
- pcb design and milling
- electronics soldering
- embedded programming
- network programming
- interface programming
- 2d design and laser cutting
What questions need answered?¶
- how will the boards communicate?
- what wireless system to use? wifi? bluetooth? esp-now? lora? RF?
- how will it look?
- how will it be powered?
- how to notify the customer? Beeping? Light? Vibration?
What worked? What didn’t?¶
- wireless problems?
- add failsafe for communication
- add failsafe or notification for battery empty
- add charging possibility
How will it be evaluated?¶
is it stable in use? Is it robust enough for concerts? will the modules last a long time how long will it work on a battery charge
todo:
- [x] lora code
- [x] puck design
- [x] puck test 3D print
- [ ] puck mold design
- [ ] puck milling
- [ ] puck casting
- [x] Web-interface ESP
- [ ] Sender protocol and receiver protocol
- [ ] timing code
- [ ] sender housing???
- [ ] charging station?
- [ ] how to charge the pucks?? Wireless or not?
Back planning:
| Title | Dates |
|---|---|
| lora software |
May 19, 2021 - May 22, 2021 |
| planning |
May 19, 2021 - May 20, 2021 |
| receiver board rework |
May 21, 2021 - May 22, 2021 |
| 3d housing redesing and print |
May 24, 2021 - May 24, 2021 |
| sender board desing |
May 24, 2021 - May 24, 2021 |
| charing battery? |
May 25, 2021 - May 26, 2021 |
| sender board milling and stuffing |
May 25, 2021 - May 25, 2021 |
| sender board testing |
May 26, 2021 - May 26, 2021 |
| video/slides |
May 26, 2021 - May 26, 2021 |
| puck timer code |
May 27, 2021 - May 27, 2021 |
| testing |
May 27, 2021 - May 27, 2021 |
| mold desing |
May 28, 2021 - May 28, 2021 |
| sender housing design |
May 28, 2021 - May 28, 2021 |
| milling mold |
May 31, 2021 - May 31, 2021 |
| lasercutting housing |
May 31, 2021 - May 31, 2021 |
| casting epoxy |
June 1, 2021 - June 1, 2021 |
| testing/documenting |
June 2, 2021 - June 2, 2021 |
| troubleshooting |
June 3, 2021 - June 4, 2021 |
| presentation prep/documenting/video |
June 3, 2021 - June 8, 2021 |
| final presentation | June 9, 2021 - June 9, 2021 |