Week 18: Project Development¶
All of my Final Project Development can be found on a seperate page/section of my website here.
Additonally, however, the questions about my project are listed below:
Primary Questions¶
What tasks have been completed, and what tasks remain?
- Finish laser cut 2D desings, cuts, and build for 1 garden unit and 1 main unit
- Design pipe intersection holders and plugs (3D print for intersection and milled mold for plugs) and finish construction
- Seal water tank and gardens with plastic walling
- Get serial communication between ATTiny board and FTDI/Unity
- Construct all-purpose board for the following: Soil Moisture Sensor, Water Level Sensor, & Motor Driver Control
- Greatly develop Unity program
- Insert all electronics
- Place in soil and plants
What has worked? What hasn’t?
All of my inputs/outputs and individual pieces of my project work, but some combining of those in the past hasn’t worked such as when I had all of my sensors on one board, an issue I’ll have to look into.2
What questions need to be resolved?
If my serial communication system between Unity and a 1614 will work properly.
What will happen next and when?
I will begin to work on each individual milestone (Listed at the bottom of this page) to finish my Final.
What have you learned?
It is impossible to list all that I have learned even just on my final project’s development so far, but just so much. I have also learned to not over complicate things unnecisarily and that looking at past years work for help is a good thing to do and not cheating at all.
Additional Information¶
What does it do?
- Maintain plants
- Retrieve data from the soil in which the plants sit
- Interpret and display said data to the user
Who’s done what beforehand?
- No one that I know of, this is my own idea, though I wouldn’t doubt something similarly being done before
What did you design?
- Every 3D model, Every 2D laser cut file, Every additional CAD file
- All code
- All electronics work/designing
- Essentially, everything except for the plastic lining, L298 motor driver, and FTDI breakout board
What materials and components were used?
- Wood
- FR1 PCB
- PLA Filiment
- Embroidery Materials
- Electronic Components
- Laptop of any kind
- ATTiny 1614
- L298 Motor Driver
- DC Pump
- Soil Moisture Sensor
- Water Level Sensor
- Capacitors
- Pin Headers
- Jumper Wires
- Acrylic/Plexiglass
Where did they come from?
- Digikey (Electronic Components)
- Lab Provided Materials (Embroidery Materials, PCB, Wood, Sensors)
- My House (Laptop)
How much did they cost?
- All of the materials EXCLUDING the acrylic/plexiglass are under $5-$10 and the overall build is easily under $100
What parts and systems were made?
- Input System
- Output System
- Sensor Interpratation/Math/Display in Unity
- Entire Framework/Construction of Physical Units made Via Laser Cutter/3D Printer
- Pipework System (For Pumping Water)
What processes were used?
- CAD
- Laser Cutting
- 3D Printing
- Molding & Casting
- Interfacing
- Electronics Design (Milling)
- CNCing (Wax Blocks)
- Vinyl Cutting
What questions were answered?
- How power is to be distributed amongst the components/boards correctly from a singular source
- How to read Serial Data into Unity
What worked? What didn’t?
- My sensors and relay worked well which really surprised me, as they were one of the most complicated part
- The initial serial reading program did not at all work for me and gave me weird chars from my serial port
- Using a relay in the end costed too much power with my system so I made the switch to an L298 motor driver
How was it evaluated?
- I evaluated a lot of my issues by doing tons of research on problems I would have, documenting such, and finding workarounds or solutions to any issues I was having.
What are the implications?
- Gardens can be built to any size or shape wanted and additionally this entire concept as a whole can be GREATLY expanded and worked on down the line to potentially network the units and greatly expand the number of sensors and values that can be retrieved
- Plant development/Growth can be researched through the findings of the device (Especially with future expansion)