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1. Principles and Practices and Project Management

Assignments for the week 1

  • Plan and sketch at least three final projects ideas
  • Download git and document steps for creating your own repository
  • Create your own personal website

Final Project Ides

i. Nap Pod

We have a room for coffee breaks at JNWSFL, but we lack a dedicated space for taking power naps. Creating a nap pod with some electronics based features could be both fun and incredibly helpful for the staff in our lab.

The proposed nap pod would include sleep-friendly lighting system, a fan, soothing music, and voice notifications. All these features could be controlled via a smartphone connected to the nap pod, making it both convenient and modern.

  Input Devices
    - Force Sensitive Resistor

   Output Devices
    - RGB Led lights
    - Speaker for Music and voice notifications.
    - Motors for fan

The above sketch is the modified version of AI generated image I created using Being AI.

This is the AI generated image of nap pod and the prompt I used is also mentioned below.

  • Prompt: Design a nap pod resembling a dragon egg, with a smooth, oval shape and a scaly, textured exterior. The pod should have a glowing, futuristic interior with ergonomic bedding, soundproofing, hidden ventilation, warm lighting, and RGB LED accents. Include a hatch-like door for easy access, offering a unique and cozy single-occupancy space.

ii. Self Balancing Help Desk Bot for JNWSFL

JNWSFL receives numerous visitors (especially young Bhutanese students), and our staff often have to conduct lab tours for each group. While this is an important part of our work which promote culture of fabrication in Bhutan, it can sometimes be time-consuming and exhausting.

An interactive mechanical chatbot could help reduce some of this pressure by providing key information about our lab and potentially engaging with visitors. This would not only enhance the visitor experience but also allow our staff to focus on other essential tasks.

   Input Devices
    - MPU6050
    - Microphone

   Output Devices
   - Motors
   - LEDs
   - LED Screen
   - Speakers

iii. Accident Detector

It is truly frightening to witness the frequent vehicle accidents in Bhutan, where lives are tragically lost, especially on roads that wind around mountains and cliffs. It is even more heartbreaking to read in the news about accidents that went unnoticed for a long time, delaying timely rescue and first aid. Often, these accidents occur when vehicles veer off the road, resulting in fatal injuries.

This device aims to address such issues by detecting the orientation and speed of vehicles, and notifying emergency medical teams, police, and family members for prompt assistance during accident.

   Input Devices
    - MPU6050
    - Button

   Output Devices
    - Led screen for accident status
    - Leds

Overview of what I did this week

  1. Attended the Student Bootcamp and gained valuable insights.
  2. Experimented with tools for photo editing and image compression, as recommended by our instructor.
  3. Learned about Git and how to set up Git Bash.
  4. Practiced cloning Git repositories.
  5. Explored using Visual Studio Code for documentation, as recommended by one of the Fab Academy graduates during the bootcamp.
  6. Familiarized myself with the basics of Markdown to effectively document my Fab Academy journey.
  7. For website building, we were provided with an HTML template. However, Markdown is more beginner friendly and I decided to stick with markdown. I downloaded the Fab Academy template from Julian’s MKDocs Student Template repository with the help from my local instructors, and began working on top of that.

1. Some Insights and Lessons from the Student Bootcamp

  • Fabacademy teaches Rapid Prototyping.
  • Keep and write notes in a small notebook dedicated for your fabacademy.
  • “One good Photo is worth 1000 words.”
  • Save videos and images in the repository(horizontal, short and no watermark).
  • You will run out of time. Learn to plan, work efficiently and recover from frequent problems.
  • Use Supply Side Time Management (Available Time determine tasks) instead of Demand-Side Time Management.
  • Prioritize Tasks in order of importance. Stay aware of passing Time and know when to stop and move on.
  • Use Spiral Development Strategy.
  • Done on time is better than Perfect and late.
  • Documentation = Graduation.
  • Document your process including errors so that someone else can replicate it.
  • Make a Template for your assignment documentation.
  • Make good use of photos and videos to reduce the amount of writing you need to do.
  • Content before “style”.

How to survive Almost Any ZOOM - Enter ALWAYS MUTED. - TURN ON your camera. - SPEAK slow and clear. - SAVE the chat.

2. Exploring Tools for Photo Editing and Image Compression

  • Flameshot
  • Flameshot is a open-source software that is used to take screenshots with various efficient built-in features.

  • Exploring tools available in Flameshot.

  • XnConvert

  • XnConvert is also open-source platform that allows you to convert, compress, rotate and 80 other action such as resize, crop, filer, color adjustment.
  • Learning how to use XnConvert

3. Introduction to Git and Setting Up Git Bash

I went through this to learn the basics of git and noted down the some essential things for my reference.

What is Git?

Git is a distributed version control system built to efficiently manage projects of all sizes, from small personal endeavors to massive collaborative ones. It tracks changes in your code, facilitates teamwork, and helps manage different versions of your codebase.

Key Principles of Git

  • Snapshots, Not Differences: Unlike traditional version control systems (VCS) that store changes as file-based deltas, Git captures snapshots of your entire project. Each commit represents the state of your files at a given point. If files haven’t changed, Git simply links to the existing version rather than duplicating data.

  • Local Operations: Most Git operations are performed locally, leveraging files and resources on your machine. This results in lightning-fast performance for tasks like browsing project history, comparing versions, and making commits—all without requiring an internet connection.

  • Integrity: Git guarantees data integrity using a SHA-1 hashing mechanism. Every file and commit is assigned a checksum, ensuring that no changes can occur without Git detecting them. This makes Git a reliable guardian of your project’s history.

  • Data Addition: Git operates on a principle of data immutability—nearly all actions add data rather than modifying or deleting it. This makes it incredibly safe to experiment, as you can always revert to a previous state if needed.

Basic Workflow - Modify Files: Make changes to your files in the working directory.

  • Stage Changes: Use git add to move your changes into the staging area, preparing them for a commit.

  • Commit Changes: Run git commit to save your changes as a snapshot in the repository. This step permanently records the state of your files at that point in time.

How I set up git:

i. Download Git bash form here

ii. Run the Installer

iii. Check Git Version

iv. Configure the Environment:

Open Git Bash, set up your username and email. Then generate SSH-Key and check your public key.

*Note: Do not forget to configure your local git environment, with same details used on Gitlab-Fabcloud.*

Command to set user name and email:
git config –-global user .name “your_username”
git config -–global user.email “your_email”

Command to generate SSH-Key:
ssh-keygen -t rsa -C “your_email”

Command to see your public key:
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

v. Copy the content of id_rsa.pub and go to git and add the key

4. Git Repository Cloning

Cloning from the Cloud: Bringing Your Repository to Local

i. Go to your cloud repository (GitLab) and click the “Code” button, and copy the repository URL(Clone with SSH).

ii. Open Git Bash and navigate to your desired local directory. Use the cd command to navigate to the directory where you want to store the cloned repository or directly open the git bash inside the desired directory. Clone the Repository using git clone command followed by the repository URL.

5. Using Visual Studio Code for Documentation

As recommended by my local instructors and Fabacademy graduates during student bootcamp, I am using VS Code to edit files and push to cloud Repo beside using git bash.

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is source code editor developed by Microsoft.

VS Code Workflow:

  • First needs to start by opening the entire project folder in Visual Studio Code.
  • Open and make changes to the specific file you want to edit.
  • VS Code will notify pending changes in the source control system, indicating that you have modified files.
  • To prepare your changes for committing, click the “+” icon next to the modified file.
  • Enter message about your changes, then, click the commit button.
  • And finally, to update your cloud repository, sync your changes by selecting the “Sync” option. This action pushes your committed changes to the cloud.

I also installed some extension in VS Code which can be helpful for me while documenting and editing in VS Code.

6. Learning the Fundamentals of Markdown for Documentation

Understanding What is Markdown Markdown is a lightweight markup language created by John Gruber in 2004, widely used for adding formatting to plain text documents. Unlike WYSIWYG editors like Microsoft Word, Markdown requires you to use syntax to format text, with changes only visible after rendering.

Following are the lists of resources that I went through to learn more about markdown. - Resource 1

7. Website Building with the Fab Academy MKDocs Template

For website building, we were all given a html template for this cycle. since I am more comfortable using markdown over html. I downloaded the fab template from Julian’s Student template MKdocs Repo and recreated my entire website.

  • Edited mkdocs.yml file by putting my name and other details.
  • Added information about myself in index.md files in doc folder.
  • Edited the home page of my website by editing the index.md.8
  • Added Fabacademy student agreements details by editing agreement.md file.
  • started documenting assignment for week 1 in week01.md file.

As I work on the website, I commit and Push the changes made. I repeat this process until I finished working on the week 1 assignment. i. Go to the directory of your local gitlab folder. ii. Open Git bash iii. Save all the changes made on your project files via VS Code.

iv. Upload all the changes made on local file to your git cloud using following command.

git status
git add .
git commit -m "message about the changes made"
git push

Note: I also backup my existing website so that I can don’t have to start from scratch if I lost my work.

Disclaimer: All assignments and documentation are originally created and written by me. However, to refine the language and grammar, I use ChatGPT in some parts of the document for editing and improvements after completing the initial draft.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

So long, and thanks for all the fish!