Weekly Assignments Final Project About me

Week 16 system integration.

In this week, we were charged with the following assignment:

Design and document the system integration for your final project


My first task – define what system integration means.

I began by working through the links and readings.

For the last ten years, I have been teaching UX, IXD, and usability, so the initial discussion of design is a good fit for me. I want to take the class, how to design almost anything.


What system integration means

Based on my lecture notes and the week’s class page/links, I believe that system integration means:

Understanding all of the elements that go into system and how they go together – or, what are the parts and how do they become a system. For this week, this means to create a map of all of the hardware and software components.

Designing the project to effectively accommodate the methods of fabrication being used and minimize the work or processing that is involved in finishing and assembling the parts and components to build the system

Designing the project to minimize the chance of failure of the project as a whole and its constituent parts. For instance, this would mean I should design a PCB to be modular- with external headers to connect to sensors and actuators

It also means designing the enclosure for the project as a whole, so that the parts are:


First steps

Revised structure- I revised the structure of the exhibit and tried to understand how all of the parts would fit together.

One determination that I made in part due to this week's lecture, was that the 6mm thick acrylic is too thick/heavy, that to minimize stress on the acrylic, the orientation of the acrylic strats needs to be vertical (perpindicular to gravity). go with 3mm

Sourcing materials- Because I am remote, my node is approximately 8 hours away, and my home institution's lab doesn't have relationships with vendors who can supply the materials in the fab academy inventory, I identified the amount and qualities of the materials that I need to complete my project and then identified vendors (ideally local) who could supply these materials.

Need to consider the end of life- Parts should be able to be repurposed in the lab.

Need to consider the use of space- the design should allow for easy assembly and dissambly and be fairly modular in nature.


Final Project Flow Chart

Flow Chart for Final Project

System/Parts

The system I am building is an interactive exhibit in which user movement will cause the NeoPixel patterns to change. It is comprised of the following parts:

Exhibit “Dome”

The exhibit will be vertically mounted slats on a wall, with the laser cut acrylic slats channeling the light from the LEDs placed beneath them. The exhibit is 48” x 36” total dimensions, comprised of 32 x 12” x 18” x 1/8” acrylic pieces. The acrylic will be cut to form a “dome.”

fusion rendering fusion rendering

Design for fabrication The parts are designed to fit inside the bed of the epilog laser cutter in my lab (12x24 in).

The slats have a prescribed order and will have an identifier laser engraved unobtrusively in a lower corner of the piece to aid in assembly.

Files to be laser cut

Forthcoming


Base/Mount Structure

The exhibit will require both a base to hold the slats as well as a permanent structure to mount to the wall and hold the base.

Base

The Base will be comprised of both a base structure and holders on which to mount the slats.

For the base I will likely use ¼” plywood cut into 12x24 sections, painted black.

Base

Holders

I will fabricate holders as a means to mount the slats on a base and then mount this base to the wall. The holders are designed to be unobtrusive, readily hold the acrylic perpendicular to the base, allow the LEDs mounted below the acrylic to shine through, and be sturdy enough to take light brushes/bumps.

Holder side Holder side

File- 3mf of holder-draftv2


Mount Structure

To mount the base, I need to design a permanent fixture that can be secured to a wall and that will allow my interactive exhibit –and other/different projects --to be securely yet temporarily mounted to it.

I plan to use T-slot extrusion as a part of this base.

Parts forthcoming

In addition, I will fabricate components used to secure the t-slot to a wall. These parts will be cut using a water jet, use a die/tap to thread the parts, and then secured using 3M bolts. i will design and create these parts during wildcard week.


Enclosure

I created an enclosure to hold the MCU, the TOF sensor, and minimp3 player, and speaker. It is to be mounted at the bottom of the base and allow for power in and then power and data lines to run to the NeoPixel strands. The enclosure will use brass heat inserts and m3 bolts to secure the lid to the enclosure and the enclosure to the base.

of enclosure base rendering in fusion of enclosure lid rendering in fusion of enclosure prototype

File- 3mf of enclosure and lid

Wiring and Wiring Management

The exhibit will require data line and power running to the LEDs and power to the mini-mp3 player and Jeffuino. I created a wire holder that will hold wires to the top and bottom of the base.

wire holder

Test File for wire clip


NeoPixels

The exhibit will be comprised of 16 meters (48 feet) of LEDs total, at 60 NeoPixels per meter = 960 NeoPixels total.

specs quoted from https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/product-files/1461/SKC6812RV__12VOP0274E_REV.A1_EN+PID+1461.pdf and https://www.adafruit.com/product/1461

power usage

Timing-

RAM

Conclusions

Because each NeoPixel segment can draw up to 60 mA at full brightness, with 960 LEDs total (16 meters, 60 LEDs per meter), the total ampage required for the project, theoretically, wuold be a maximum of about 57.6 A at 5V if all NeoPixels are fully lit white.

The Xiao ESP32C3 should be able to handle the Timing and RAM of the neopixels. The XIAO can opersate at 160 MHz and has 400KB SRAM and 4MB Flash, plus it can use wifi as well as I2C (to connect/read the TOF sensor).

Controller board

I will be using the Jeffuino board for this project, only using an ESP32C3 rather than an RP2040. The footprint and pinout are the same, although the specs for the boards are different.

File
Image of Board Jeff Uino

Wiring

As part of wiring management, I have to determine what is the most effective way to connect the power of the 16 different strips. It muist be safe, modular, easy to fabricate, and easy to install.Ideally, it should also be relatively inexpensive.


Reviewed

Adafruit Learning System. “Adafruit NeoPixel Überguide.” Accessed June 15, 2022. https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide/the-magic-of-neopixels.


Bill of Materials (BOM)

ComponentQuantitySupplierURLPrice
Exhibit
Acrylic (Clear) 12” x 24” x 1/8”32MakerStockhttps://makerstock.com/products/clear-acrylic?variant=29808490020961$8.50
     
Backing/Mount Structure
Plywood ¼ in
T-Slotted Framing Rail, Single Four Slot Rail, Silver, 40 mm Square, 4 Feet Long4McMaster Carrhttps://www.mcmaster.com/6575N25/40.22
M3 screws
T-slot nuts
Means to fasten to wall
Braces/PETG
NeoPixel addressable LEDs
Adafruit NeoPixel Digital RGB LED Strip - Black 60 LED 4m4Adafruithttps://www.adafruit.com/product/146154.95
Female DC Power adapter - 2.1mm jack to screw terminal block4Adafruithttps://www.adafruit.com/product/368$2.00
2-pin JST SM Plug + Receptacle Cable Set15Adafruithttps://www.adafruit.com/product/2880$0.75
     
     
     
Enclosure
PETG
User Input sensors
VL53L5CX Time-of-Flight 8×8-Zone Distance Sensor Carrier with Voltage Regulator, 400cm Max1Pololuhttps://www.pololu.com/product/341719.95
MCU/Processing
XIAO ESP32C31digikeyhttps://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/seeed-technology-co-ltd/113991054/166528804.99
Sound
DFPLAYER - A MINI MP3 PLAYER DFR02991digikeyhttps://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/dfrobot/DFR0299/65884635.9
36mm Speaker w/ Wires - 8 Ohm 2 Watt1Adafruithttps://www.adafruit.com/product/6486$1.95
     
Power
5V 20A switching power supply 4Adafruithttps://www.adafruit.com/product/658$29.95