Project Development
With the completion of global presentations, I am content and confident with my progress. The main things I need to concentrate on are the documentation of the final project and then work on the the updates required by evaluators.
What my Final Project will do?
The Final Project "Mini-Nyin" can be translated as mini-sun rays and it is aimed at making my life easier and for my family. This consist of ATtiny1614 as main MCU triggered by Voice Module (Elechouse V3) an Input which will power the bulb connected to Relay as Output. This idea popped up when we are in hurry and need to turn on light in the dark and unable to locate the switch instantly. Moreover, we tend to break other items falling from table when searching for switches in the dark. With voice control, you don't need to look for switch manually preventing the breaking of other items and also don't have to look for switch at all in any sort of circumstances. In addition, I thought it has become necessary in this technological era where you don't always have to manually hover around nearby switches to put and put out lights and fans. Also, I have seen in TV shows like Alexa which plays songs according to voice commands which literally inspired me to have something like it.
Similar Projects done before
I had idea to power the electrical appliances with my voice command but didn't know how to start with. Then I started skimming through google and found out that some people already had similar DIY projects done with voice module in combination with Arduino. Then I got to know that my idea of controlling electrical appliances with my voice command could be possible and it further boost my interest to go ahead with the plan. The link I referred for concrete development of my idea Science Buddies/Arduino DIY project
My Designs
With the idea, I need to design PCB and I'm using kicad 7.0 for that and housing for embedding my MCU and electronic components. Also need to 3D design lampshade and couplings that can integrate lampshade to the housing.
The Electronic Board
2D designs
The .DXF file from fusion 360 is taken into the laser PC and used to cut my housing. The housing will be in the cylindrical format with kerf cutting. The material used will be ply and engraved on top cover.
3D Design for Final Project
The lamp shade will be made in 3D printer covering the additive aspect o the final project. I used lithophane maker and printed the photo of my family to make it aesthetically appealing. Also I would use coupler to join housing and lamp shade which will be 3D printed, bulb holder as well:
Materials and Components
| Particulars | Description | Quantity | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCU | ATtiny1614 | 1 | 2.00 $ | Digikey |
| 1 Relay | 3-5 V relay Module | 1 | 0.5 $ | Amazon |
| 1 Voice Recognition module | Elechouse Voice Recognition Module V3 with Microphone | 1 | 22.00 $ | Amazon |
| PLA filament | White PLA filament for lamp shade (1.75mm) | 1 KG | 24.00 $ | Amazon |
| PlyBoard | Ply of 5mm thick and 1 sq.m | 1 | 1 $ | Local market |
| Bulb | LED bulb 230V | 1 | 1.5 $ | Local market |
Sourcing/Procuring materials
Majority of my materials are available in the lab. The only thing I bought is Elechouse module V3 and it is planned to be sourced from Amazon. It is good to plan on sourcing your materials and components because it is hard to get other tech components in Bhutan. It took two months for me to get my Elechouse Module.
Processes Involved
What questions need to be answered?
How am I going to assemble and attach the lampshade with housing? What will be used to couple the two? Also how am I going to arrange all the components and make it aesthetically appealing?
Evaluation Criteria
My project will be evaluated based on the project assessment criteria and also it will massively depend on its function that is the out put relay should be controlled with voice command sent through mic of voice module elechouse module V3 integrated to MCU ATtiny1614. Moreover, it depends on aesthetic point of view which means it should be attractive to the customer or other people who aspire to make/replicate the same.
The main housing would look like image given below:
The lamp shade printed in 3D printer using white PLA filament:
What have been completed?
The electronics, design, milling, soldering production and programming are complete and presentation is completed along with presentation video and slide. The assembling and packaging are also complete with systematic planning.
What tasks remain ?
Actually, I have completed all the tasks from the aspect of final project. However, I have some issue with sensitivity of voice module which forces me to go very close to the MIC and command. Therefore, I'm thinking of working on it as future plans if I wanted to expand my project to greater scale.
What worked and what wasn't?
As mentioned earlier, it was hard to train voice module. Voice recognition module called elechouse V3 had the capacity to hold 80 voice commands but when I trained it didn't really recognize the voice commands as expected.
What questions need to be resolved?
I only need to resolve the issue caused by insensitivity of voice module that was hard to train. Moreover, I have to work on filtering the voice commands so that not anyone can just command the power on and off. I was thinking of making filtration process to prevent from being misused by little kids.
What will happen when?
With evaluation process coming to an end, I'll have to complete the documentation and update as and when required by both local and global evaluators.
What have you learned?
The primary and key takeaways from this course is about documenting whatever you have done and recording the mistakes were critically crucial so that it can help debug in future for the people who faces same problems. In addition, things will never work as planned and will always never be on schedule, but it is still important to plan.
Programming (Completely new thing and learned)
Programming the ATtiny1614 with arduino IDE 1.8.13 is one of the biggest skills I have learned and will be with me forever. It has really cleared many doubts with regards to electronics and programming. Mostly I had difficulty with programming and now I know how I can get the codes for various projects online and cite references.
Design Files
Schematic&PCB Final
All Designs Final Project