Learning Experience Paper

Through out the creation of the Twist Weather Station, originally created by Jonathan Pereira, I have learned an incredible amount creating my own project. I learned a lot of about coding and incorporating sensors to work, about Intel Edison Boards, and about the physical aspect of creating my own project. Although, this project was not with out major setbacks and difficulties, I had an incredible amount of fun, and the excitement of getting little parts of the project working is unparalleled.

Creating the physical part of the Twist Weather Station continues to be one of my favorite part of the project. I learned all about the 3D printers and the laser printer. For one, the slower the printer goes the better the print turns out. Also, with the laser printer it's important to set the dimensions to 20*32. In addition, it is crucial to have the setting set to cardboard, not acrylic. Finally, one of the most important things to do is have the Inkscape in .0001 INCHES, not millimeters or pixels. After lots of frustration, and finally asking a teacher I learned the inches part of the laser cutter settings. Now, I will not forget to print slower for better results and check all the settings in Inkscape and on the advanced setting while printing.

Setting up the Intel Edison Board ended up being a small project in its self. Apparently setting up an Intel Edison Board consist of more than just plugging it into the computer. In fact, it requires me to flash the board. Flashing the board is incredibly difficult. I learned that new technology should not be run in Windows Vista computers and that it's time for my mom to get a new laptop. Also, I learned about Putty and how to use it to connect a Intel Edison to WiFi. I learned all about ports and that the unparalleled importance that if something in a step is not working, it's incredibly unwise to continue and hope the problems goes away, because that will result in having to go back and reattempted everything. Actually, looking back on my decision to use the Intel Edison Board, I don't think that I would change the board. In learned an unbelievable amount about working though my own problems. Sometimes the most awesome discoveries come from freaking out the night before your project is due and driving though Charlotte to find a tiny group of engineers to try and help you. Through the process of connecting the Intel Edison Board to the internet, I have learned about compatible technology, following specific instructions, and finding my own extra help outside of school.

Coding, not my favorite thing. I learned that I prefer working with my hands on a soldering project, much more than I enjoy sitting in front of computer and receiving an unimaginable amount of error messages. Error messages, are in my opinion, one of the most terrible creations invented. All they accomplish is creating red letters across your screen that say ERROR, and creating very enraged people who don't know what the error message means. But, despite all of my coding difficulties I learned a lot. For one, C++ is hard. It's just difficult, but it can accomplish incredible things like tweeting from an arduino. Also, I learned how exciting it is to finished a small code or fix and error. I learned that hard work does have some success even if it's not totally the result you wanted. Over all coding was frustrating, but incredibly rewarding when ever something worked.

My project might not have worked exactly as I wanted it to, but I had an incredibly fun time trying to get it to work and I learned a lot. I learned all about small successes, making stupid mistakes can make laser cutters not function properly, and finally I learned that Intel enjoys creating very frustrating arduino boards. Over the course of the second quarter, I now have acquired the knowledge to work through my own problems, but I also learned the limits of what I can realistically accomplish.