19. Project development¶
This week I worked on defining my final project idea and started to getting used to the documentation process.
Question Responses¶
Problem Responses¶
What will it do?
The interactive map is used to adverise our school’s global study program. Once the touch sensor is triggered on the map, the screen will show images of the happy moments our students have experienced in that place.
Who’s done what beforehand?
As far as I know, Elaine Liu and Connor Cruz have done similar projects as me.
What will you design and what parts and systems will be made?
I would design the wooden frame of my map for CNC machining.
I also need to design the names of the countries for vinyl cutting.
The shapes of the continents need to be designed in CorelDraw and cutted out by laser cutter.
I also need to design the PCB of my final project.
What materials and components will be used?
For laser cutting, I will using obaque acrylic for the shapes of the continents. I will use cardbaord for test cutting.
For Vinyl cutting, I will use glazed vinyl of various colors.
I will use 0.5” wood for the frame of my
For electronics, I will use copper tape and electricaltape to make the sensor and copper boards for making PCB and a TFT screen for displaying images.
Here’smy Bill of Materials:
Where will come from?
Most components and materials are available in Fab Lab. I’ll just need to order the TFT screen and acrylics from Amazon.
How much will they cost?
Taking everything incuding some materials in lab into considerations, it will cost $104.78 in total.
What processes will be used?
- CNC Machining for my wood frame and the outline of the map.
- Laser Cutting for cutting acrylic into shapes of the continents on the map.
- Vinyl Cutting for the names of the countries
- PCB milling for the electronics
What questions need to be answered?
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How to make the acrylic stay on top of the map?
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How to make the sensors remain contact with the acrylic?
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How to position my PCB board on the map?
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What can I selectively reduce to finish my final project on time?
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How to make the SD card work with the TFT screen?
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Should I use same microcontroller for both sensors and screen or should I use different and make communications between them?
How will it be evaluated?
- the delicacy of the whole map
- the accuracy of the touch sensors
- the responses TFT screen made (displaying the matching images).
What tasks have been completed?
I have done the CNC machining for the wood frame, although I still need to sand my frame. Ihave also figured out how to build my own touch sensors.Part of the acrylics have been cutted out.
What tasks remain?
I still need to finish laser cutting acrylics. I also need to figure out how to display images on TFT Screen from SD card and te connection between xiao esp32-c3 and rp2040. I also need to figure out what type of code I will use: C++ (Arduino) or Python (Thonny).
What has worked? What hasn’t?
The sensor I built have been working well. However the SD card does not want to cooperate with me so I still need to figure out how to display images from an SD card.
What questions need to be resolved?
Since the bit I used for CNC machining is 3/8 spiral compression, it rounded edges that are supposed to be sharp on the map. So I need to adjust my laser cutting design according to the actual shape of the map on the wooden frame. So there are gaps between the acrylic and the wood frame. I am trying to make gap smaller but I will solve it later.
What have you learned?
I think time management is the biggest thing I have learned in building my final project. Since we have little time, it is important to make good use of every spare time to complete the weekly assignments while working on my final project. I also learned to take advantage of some of the weeks and incorporate part of the final project into the weekly assignments.