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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

Last update: June 8, 2021