18. Project development

This week I worked on completing my final project. I also tried to modify my previous assignments according to evaluator comments, but I have not had much time to do that.

What tasks have been completed?

With regards the final project development, currently I have a working prototype, which I think fulfills the minimum requirements for the final project.

I have mostly completed the assignments, but did not have enough time to react to all reviewer comments. I have uploaded a video and slide of the final project, which would probably be enough, but I will update them if I will manage get more features working, which I hope is the case.

What tasks remain?

I will try to do correct my assignments according to reviewer feedback tomorrow and beginning of next week. There are also few group work assignments that I try to do this weekend. I also intend to develop the final project further to incorporate webhost provided by the ESP32c3 microcontroller, and the oled screen to give more information for the user of the device. I have templates ready for these, but did not output any information using these channels yet. I will try to do them on next week. If there is time, I will also try to incorporate MQTT connectivity, to output the data (of what is in each recycling bag) from the device to the database, which could be read by the recycling center

What has worked? What has not?

Currently I have a working prototype, which I think fulfills the minimum requirements for the final project. I had some problems in making the final project: Although I got the barcode reader connected to the RP2040 using pico_pio and tinyusb libraries, it was difficult to connect the RP2040 to the ESP32C3 microcontroller, since using standard methods such as the software serial or I2C communication seemed to break the usb host functionality, or I could not get the communication library to work. To surpass these problems, I made my own communication protocol to pass the barcode information from RP2040 to ESP32C3. Ideally, it would be best to have the barcode connected to the ESP32C3 directly, but this was not possible. I read from some internet pages that it might be possible using some other ESP microcontroller.

What questions need to be resolved? What will happen and when?

I intend to develop the final project further to incorporate webhost provided by the ESP32c3 microcontroller, and the oled screen to give more information for the user of the device. I have templates ready for these, but did not output any information using these channels yet. I will try to do them on next week. If there is time, I will also try to incorporate MQTT connectivity, to output the data (of what is in each recycling bag) from the device to the database, which could be read by the recycling center. I will apply spiral development principle to add new features one by one.

What have you learned?

I have learned the principles of digital fabrication during this course. Additionally, I have learned working in groups, and time management. I have also learned what kind of efforts, skills and time requirements the fabrication processes demand.