This video shows our code working on a paper cup. The LED is set to blink every 10 seconds if water is not consumed (it will probably be 1 hour in our final model). The LED turns off/timer resets if the water level goes down.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
H2duinO
This past week has been exciting as we have made a significant amount of progress. Our code is now fully functional and our final bottle model is nearing completion. The transition from paper cups to a water bottle required a few slight code alterations, as the thicker plastic walls made the capacitive sensors less sensitive to changes in water level.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Week 9: Finalizing
Amber & Meleigha
This week we continued the process of constructing the umbrella. Today we focused on the cover and the sensors inside. This proved to be more of a challenge than it would first appear. First off, the umbrella bends inward and isn't meant to collapse like a normal umbrella. This leads to the fabric sagging. Which would be okay except our sensors are activated/the circuit is completed when the top layer of fabric touches the under-layer of fabric. The sagging of the edge, therefore can trigger our sensor.
To help the sagging, we added wire "framing" between each of the arms (this was done with amber holding the umbrella while Meleigha laid on her back and wove it around)
Our next challenge is to attach the motors in a stable way and attach the strings to the spooling system in a way that pulls each of them evenly and from the correct angle.
Our code is in progress. We have written what should be functioning code, but when tested with LED lights, the program does not respond as expected. So we have some trouble shooting ahead.
This week we continued the process of constructing the umbrella. Today we focused on the cover and the sensors inside. This proved to be more of a challenge than it would first appear. First off, the umbrella bends inward and isn't meant to collapse like a normal umbrella. This leads to the fabric sagging. Which would be okay except our sensors are activated/the circuit is completed when the top layer of fabric touches the under-layer of fabric. The sagging of the edge, therefore can trigger our sensor.
To help the sagging, we added wire "framing" between each of the arms (this was done with amber holding the umbrella while Meleigha laid on her back and wove it around)
Our next challenge is to attach the motors in a stable way and attach the strings to the spooling system in a way that pulls each of them evenly and from the correct angle.Our code is in progress. We have written what should be functioning code, but when tested with LED lights, the program does not respond as expected. So we have some trouble shooting ahead.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Week 9
Amy & Amy
All that is left for this project is fixing our code and making a more permanent system within our hoodie. We have our main code, but are having issues with transitioning form color to color within the PWM range (to work fluidly together).
As far as assembling our "Expressive Hoodie", we have started to solder a permanent breadboard for the housing of the LED's and need to hook up the appropriate wires. From there we just need to sew and attach the wiring and pressure sensor onto the hoodie, as well as hook up a battery for portability.
All that is left for this project is fixing our code and making a more permanent system within our hoodie. We have our main code, but are having issues with transitioning form color to color within the PWM range (to work fluidly together).
As far as assembling our "Expressive Hoodie", we have started to solder a permanent breadboard for the housing of the LED's and need to hook up the appropriate wires. From there we just need to sew and attach the wiring and pressure sensor onto the hoodie, as well as hook up a battery for portability.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Week 9: Neil R. & Inness
Debugging and building are all we have left to do to complete this project. All of our components have been soldered onto our protoboard including the receiver chip and both battery packs. We are able to code all of the functions of our device, but are still having some issues with the device working consistently.
We also need to write a fully functional comprehensive code as far as making the device transmit audio from the moment of pouring and continuing for ten seconds. This should be a quick and easy code alteration.
We have finally purchased a second monitor transmitter (Thank you Neil for driving out to Sumner), so we can now transmit and receive from two separate locations, changing channels through the direction we pour (180 per channel). With all of the coding and electronic components functioning, packaging is now our biggest challenge. Because there is so much exposed metal in the configuration we have, there is a large risk of shorting out the device if we just pile the chips on top of each other. Therefore we will need to find some plastic cushioning to protect our electronics.
We are still planning on housing our device in a squat cylindrical base attachment to our pitcher. We are now planning on using yellow foam rather than wood to construct this base, as per some recommendations we have received. Once we construct this, we will have to figure out how to safely nest our components and attach the base in an easily removable way.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Week 8: Building
Meleigha & Amber
Today we spent our time constructing a one panel mockup of our umbrella to test the required torque to pull in the arms and to test the overall soundness of our design.
First, we started with the center piece that holds all of the arms. Our first design was made of many pieces glued together (one for each arm) and we realized this was dumb. Why not just make one piece with 6 holes? 2 hours of work later this second idea took us very little time to construct and was much stronger.
Second, we cut the arms to length (23.5 inches) then attached Teflon floss (slippery!) from the center pole to the arms. We learned that the when the floss was attached to the pole making a straight line to the bent arm, the amount of force needed to pull the floss was less than if it were tied higher on the pole.
Next, we created a template for the covering of the umbrella.
Our next step is to finish the fabric covering and attach the sensors. We have begun to figure out the code to drive the motor but that will become our main focus soon.
Today we spent our time constructing a one panel mockup of our umbrella to test the required torque to pull in the arms and to test the overall soundness of our design.
First, we started with the center piece that holds all of the arms. Our first design was made of many pieces glued together (one for each arm) and we realized this was dumb. Why not just make one piece with 6 holes? 2 hours of work later this second idea took us very little time to construct and was much stronger.
Second, we cut the arms to length (23.5 inches) then attached Teflon floss (slippery!) from the center pole to the arms. We learned that the when the floss was attached to the pole making a straight line to the bent arm, the amount of force needed to pull the floss was less than if it were tied higher on the pole.
Next, we created a template for the covering of the umbrella.
Our next step is to finish the fabric covering and attach the sensors. We have begun to figure out the code to drive the motor but that will become our main focus soon.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
This Week With Our Duino
Katie Suskin/Jon Lai
We have recently made headway in our hardware exploration of sophisticated capacitive sensing systems involving aluminum tape, a 9V battery and cups from Parnassus. By applying the aluminum tape to precisely calculated positions on the cup... on opposite sides, a capacitive field can be generated that is capable of measuring the quantity of water in the cup. This is made possible with the CapSense library and a 1 mega ohm resistor. By utilizing a high level of resistance in the circuit, the capacitance and in turn the volume of water can be measured precisely.
In the following video you will observe the capabilities of our duino in measuring the quantity of water in a cup. An l.e.d. as been attached that has a brightness based on the measured quantity of water. The light increases and decreases in brightness as water is added and taken away respectively. Additionally you can see the rave response our duino received from its critics.
We have recently made headway in our hardware exploration of sophisticated capacitive sensing systems involving aluminum tape, a 9V battery and cups from Parnassus. By applying the aluminum tape to precisely calculated positions on the cup... on opposite sides, a capacitive field can be generated that is capable of measuring the quantity of water in the cup. This is made possible with the CapSense library and a 1 mega ohm resistor. By utilizing a high level of resistance in the circuit, the capacitance and in turn the volume of water can be measured precisely.
In the following video you will observe the capabilities of our duino in measuring the quantity of water in a cup. An l.e.d. as been attached that has a brightness based on the measured quantity of water. The light increases and decreases in brightness as water is added and taken away respectively. Additionally you can see the rave response our duino received from its critics.
Arduino: Water Power from Katie Suskin on Vimeo.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Week 8
Amy & Amy
Our project has really started to come together this week. We have constructed our sensor and figured out how to solder a more refined version of our "expressive hoodie" with the LED's.
We are now fusing around with the code, making decisions on what would be the best outcome for the pressure sensor. There are two routes we could go:
1) Be able to 'toggle' through different colors and fade in and out.
2) Have the amount of pressure correlate to the color; for example, a light touch would be blue, whereas a medium amount of pressure would fade to green, and very high pressure would be red.
We are leaning towards the second outcome in this instance. Overall, a very productive week.
Our project has really started to come together this week. We have constructed our sensor and figured out how to solder a more refined version of our "expressive hoodie" with the LED's.
We are now fusing around with the code, making decisions on what would be the best outcome for the pressure sensor. There are two routes we could go:
1) Be able to 'toggle' through different colors and fade in and out.
2) Have the amount of pressure correlate to the color; for example, a light touch would be blue, whereas a medium amount of pressure would fade to green, and very high pressure would be red.
We are leaning towards the second outcome in this instance. Overall, a very productive week.
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