Personal Project

This is a photo of part of the code that makes the project run:

This is a photo of the base of the toy in Fusion360 and 3D printed out. The hole in the bottom is where the LED matrix display goes. This is where the "sand" is shown and the whole idea of the toy. Inside the base goes the Feather board, the accelerometer, the battery, and the wires:

There are 5 additional pieces which are part of my project:

This is a picture of me using the 3D printer to print out my first piece:

Here is the layout for the base of the project in CURA:

Here is a video of me 3D printing out the base of the project:

Here is a video of my project working for the first time:

Here is a video of my project working with correct gravity after I adjusted the accelerometer:

Here are the pictures of me using the multimeter to test the voltage of my battery:

Here is a video of my project fully assembled and working. Unfortunately it still needs to be plugged into a computer as the battery does not work.

Final Summary:

After finally completing my Animated LED Sand Toy I have learned much more about electronics, and completing a large project in general. I had never been very good at soldering before attempting this project. Soldering was probably the most important aspect of this project. I had to solder over 10 different wires in the correct places without having any bubbles, as I would learn. After first attempting my soldering I had many large blobs of solder. This did not stop the project from actually working, however, when I tried to assemble the project, the blobs made this impossible. I had to re-solder many times, whether from having too big blobs, or wires coming undone. This was very frustrating, however I stuck with it and the project came together in the end.

In this project I also had a new problem with materials. At first this was my vault as I failed to realize every material that I would need for my project. After ordering all the materials I was ready to complete my project. However, the battery I ordered simply did not work when plugged into my Feather board. I used a multimeter to check the voltage, and it only came out to 0.38v. More than 3 volts short of the required amount. This was very frustrating as the toy can currently only work when it is plugged into a computer through a USB. This leads me to what I would do next. In fact, I am going to order a new battery, or get one from the FabLab, and switch out the batteries in my project. This will make the project fully portable and successfully.

Finally, after completing this project I learned that I can preserve through many difficulties, some caused by me and some unpreventable. I also had to learn to not get frustrated by my own mistakes through soldering or assembling my project. For example, I messed up assembling my project many different times with the screws I ordered and had to re-solder after each mistake where I broke a wire connection. This took a lot of time to set up the soldering equipment and let the machine heat up for only a few seconds of actual soldering. I had to be patient and calm during this time. I believe that I did this very well and that enabled me to successfully complete my project.