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Project management

A Gantt chart

Tasks and dates

There are many tasks that need to be done for the final project. Here is an overview of them and the dates are deadlines that I organized for myself, so that the project can be done on time. At the bottom of this page I tell the story of how I tried different ways to use a Gantt chart and the problems I ran into.

Project management - Final project by Ólöf Þóranna Hannesdóttir - VA

Development part by part

Develop an idea

Design the basic idea on what the final project might look like.

Deadline: Feb 04. Done in Week 02

  • Develop an idea - spiral 1 (the basic idea)

Buy levitation model

Design the basic idea on what the final project might look like.

Done in November 2024

  • Buy levitation model

Get information on GPS tracking of whales

Contact the Marine and freshwater research institute in Iceland and ask if I can get information on GPS tracking of whales.

Done in Jan 30.

  • Contact the Marine and freshwater research institute in Iceland

Neopixel LEDs

  • Learn how to connect and program Neopixel LEDs. Begin by looking at how they are connected and programmed in Wokwi and in datasheet. Done in: Week 04

  • Learn how to design a circuit board with Raspberry Pi Pico and one Neopixel LED. Learn how to program them. Done in: Week 06

  • Practice how to solder them on PCB board. Learn how to program them. Done in: Week 08

  • Learn how to use and program Neopixel LEDs

Mini model

  • Create a mini model of the final project. Done in: Week 08

  • Create a mini model of final project

Whale drawn in Blender

  • Draw the whale in Blender. I need to practice a lot because this did not go well in Week 02. Hopefully this will work better with more practice.
    Deadline: Done in:

  • Draw the whale in Blender.

  • Plan B: If that doesn't work, I will try to make the whale out of clay and 3D scan it.

  • Sculpt the whale out of clay and 3D scan it.

Deadline: May 14.

Done in

Create plexiglass map

  • Design and produce the plexiglass map. Deadline: Done in:

  • Design the plexiglass map.

  • Produce the plexiglass map.

Deadline: May 17.

Done in

Design and produce PCB with Raspberry Pi Pico W

  • Design and produce the PCB with a Raspberry Pi Pico W. It has to have pins to connect in three directions:

    • To connect to the PCB board with the Doppler radar

    • To connect to the PCB board with the On/Off button

    • To connect to the Neopixels.

Deadline: Done in:

  • Design the PCB with the Raspberry Pi Pico W.
  • Produce the PCB with the Raspberry Pi Pico W.

Deadline: May 19th

Done: May 18th

Design and produce PCB with Doppler radar

  • Design and produce the PCB plate with the Doppler radar. It will respond to movement and will be used as input for the lights to turn on. Note that I don't have to design traces, only the size of the board and the holes for screws.

Deadline: Done in:

  • Design the PCB plate that the Doppler radar will be fastened on.
  • Produce the PCB plate that the Doppler radar will be fastened on.

Deadline: May 19th

Done: May 18th

Design and produce PCB and plexiglass with Neopixel LEDs

  • Design and produce the PCB and plexiglass. Neopixel LEDs will be arranged to form the tracking of the whale. A sensor that responds to movement will be used as input for the lights to turn on. Deadline: Done in:

  • Design the PCB and the plexiglass under it.

  • Produce the PCB with the Neopixel LEDs.

Deadline: May 19.

Done in

Design and produce enclosure

  • Design and produce the enclosure. More details:
    • Will be 3D printed with PLA.
    • On the bottom there will be fasteners for the levitation model. There will be four cylinders extruded from the bottom and there will be heat inserts in them. Then the levitation model can be fastened with screws that go into the heat inserts.
    • On the sides there will be brackets where the PCBs and wires will be placed.
    • At the top there will be a brim to hold the plexiglas map in place.
    • A few millimeters lower there will be another brim to hold another plexiglass in place. The Neopixels with the PCB will be fastened on it.
    • At the back there will be a hole for power input and on/off button.
    • At the front there will be a hole for a Doppler radar (sensor that senses movement).

Deadline:

Done in:

  • Design the enclosure
  • Produce the enclosure

Deadline: May 14. Done in

Write the program

  • Write the program in MicroPython. Main functions:

    Input:

    • Tell Doppler radar to sense movement

    Output:

    • Let Neopixels blink one at at time. The first one to blink is the one closest to Iceland and then they will all follow the line and form a path.

  • Write the program in MicroPython.

Deadline: May 19.

Done in

What I tested for project management

Mermaid extension in Visual Studio Code used for Gantt

Tasks and dates

Before I did this Gantt chart in Canva I tried out the Mermaid plugin here and added Markdown Preview Mermaid Support to see if I would like to use it for a Gantt diagram.

I ran into problems when setting it up. I could see the preview of the Gantt chart in VSCode but it did not appear on the web. In the lower image here below you can see that it only appeared as a code on the website.

A fellow student in Fab Academy, Magnús Pétursson, pointed out this website here.

Settings in gitlab-ci.yml

It helped me understand more, but something was not working. I tried different things but got notificatons about a broken pipeline. Then I talked to Þórarinn Bjartur Breiðfjörð and he showed me how the setup should be. Here below you can see that I added pip install for mermaid in Gitlab-ci.yml.

Settings in mkdocs.yml

Here below you can see how the setup was in mkdocs.yml from the pymdownx.superfences and downwards:

Here below you can see what the Gantt chart looked like:

gantt
    title A Gantt Diagram
    dateFormat  YYYY-MM-DD
    section Section
    A task           :a1, 2025-01-01, 30d
    Another task     :after a1  , 20d
    section Another
    Task in sec      :2025-01-12  , 12d
    another task      : 24d

I did not like the looks of it, so I decided to try out a Canva template and see if I could publish a live Gantt chart online. It worked! You can see it on top of this page.

Canva template for project management

Canva template

This is the Gantt template that I used here above for project management: Canva template

A live Canva Gantt chart

To publish a live Gantt chart from Canva you begin by clicking on the Share button and then you choose the embed option. Then, as you can see in the lower image here below, you can copy a HTML code and paste it into your .md in your repository. Then you have a live document.

A live Canva Gantt chart

Here you can see the live document that will show any changes that I make in Canva.

Project management - Final project by Ólöf Þóranna Hannesdóttir - VA