November 8th: Today, I received my materials I ordered from Sparkfun, and began sorting what materials I have vs what materials I still needed to create my project. I received the ultrasonic sensor, the DC male power jack, the buzzer, the toggle switch, the vibration motor, and the breadboard. I still need to find around the Fablab, the arduino uno, jumperwires, 9v battery, and 9v battery connector.
November 9th: Today, I gathered the rest of my materials that could be found in the Fablab and did not have to be ordered, like the arduino uno and jumper wires to practice making my board before I soldered and made my project more permeant, because I needed to test the project in general with the code first before I soldered my arduino board. I also downloaded the arduino code program onto the computer in order to write and create my code to download onto the arduino board. I then familiarized myself with the code that I was basing off my tutorial website to see the distances and functions associated with the if then statements of the code, because that is a key component in my project working and not going off or buzzing at every second or not at all.
November 12th: Today, I made the code modeled after my tutorial website page for this project. I also made a project plan to attempt to follow, planning out what steps I needed to do to complete my project, what materials I needed for every step, when I planned to start and end each step, all leading up to December 15th- the date my project is due. This allowed me to familiarize myself with what steps I had to complete to complete my project, but also how long each step should take me so I can finish my project with enough time.
November 13th: Today, I finished creating my project plan on a google spreadsheet, to have it more organized to see when and what I need to complete on my project. I also found a 9v battery and used a multimeter to see if the battery was at the correct or working voltage, and that it was not a dead battery. The multimeter read 9v, so I knew the battery was not dead and could be used in my project. I then went around the Fablab to find another vibration motor, to possibly be more compatible with a vibration motor of an old cell phone, because that is the type of vibration motor used in the tutorial website. I found another vibration motor that I am going to compare with the motor I ordered to see which one is more effective for my project.
November 14th: Today, I worked on putting the correct components on my arduino board. Using the tutorial website I modeled it after, I was able to put the jumper wires, buzzer, ultrasonic sensor and vibration motor all connected to the correct components and parts of the arduino and breadboard. I also worked to find a different slide switch, one with three prongs, even though I was not using it to practice or set up my board right now, I would eventually need it in my project. I found the slide switch, and it would work to follow the tutorial more than the toggle switch I originally ordered.
November 15th: Today, I finished setting up my board, using tape to connect the pieces that would eventually need to be soldered together, so they could still have connection but not a permeant one quite yet. I used a usb cord to connect my arduino to the computer in order to download my code to it. When I attempted to download my code to the arduino, it originally did not work, but then I realized that it was not working because the port was wrong, and after changing this, the code started working on the board. I also changed the delay time on the code to 100 rather than 500 to make the reaction time faster for the vibration motor to go off. The code is still only working 1/2 of the time on the board, and I believe the main issue with that is the tape holding my components together, but I will address this issue next class.
November 16th: Today, I used alligator clips to test my code on my arduino board, instead of the tape I was using. This made it work more consistently and better, and it allowed the buzzer to start working. I also changed the distance of the if then statement on my code to 90 rather than 70 to give it more room or distance for my code to start working because I thought 70 was too close and might cause a person to still run into an object or get very very close to it, so I changed it to 90. I also tested the other vibration motor with the board and code and it did not work or did not work well, so I decided to stay with the coin vibration motor for my project.
November 26th: Today, instead of working on our projects we sidetracked to learn practice a skill in Eagle. We learned how to export files from tinker circuit on the website tinkercad as a brd file to the Eagle software. After we exported our potentiometer file from tinkercad to Eagle, and then manipulated it so none of the wires would overlap. This way we could see the potential layout of the potentiometer, and we could use this to see if the design we made in tinkercad would actual work or not if we created it and made sure the wires were not overlapping and have the correct power source.
November 27th: Today, I planned on starting soldering my board, but first I had to collect the wires I needed to create my board or to complete my board. I cut the wires around the same length and made them long, so I would be able to or at least try to be able to move my connecting pieces around a little more to attempt to put all of the intelligence inside of the cane. I cut 4 yellow wires, to represent the various colors in my tutorial, and then I cut 4 black wires to be the ground wire, and I cut 3 red wires, as used in the tutorial. Then I had to strip both sides of the wires, so I would be able to actual solder the wires to the protoboard. After doing all the wires, I only had time to solder the ultrasonic sensor to my breadboard, but I made sure that it was in the same relative location as the when I put it on the breadboard.
November 29th: Today, I finished soldering on my protoboard. I had to solder 4 wires to the protoboard, all near the ultrasonic sensor, and put the wires in the same relative location as when they were on the breadboard. I made sure that none of the solder or wires were touching each other, so hopefully when I test the whole project together it would work. I then decided to test my project with the protoboard connected to the arduino uno connected to the computer for a power source. When I tested the code on the board, the buzzer worked very loudly and very suddenly, so I need to see if I can make the buzzer possible quieter on my code, but also test it again to make sure it is working within a reasonable distance from my sensor. The problem was that my vibration motor did not work when I tested it, so I need to resolve this issue before adding more to my project.
November 30th: Today, I worked on getting my vibration motor to work once again. I stripped the wire on the motor to make more space for the alligator clips to connect to the wire on the motor. I also unplugged the buzzer from the board, so I could just focus on the issue with my vibration motor. When I tested the vibration motor and looked over my code for potential problems, the motor still did not work, so I will have to continue to work on this problem on my project.
December 3rd: Today, I tried to retest my board to see if it was working today. The buzzer and the vibration motor both did not work when I tried them. I looked at my soldering job to see the main issue, because they were both working before at some point. I realized that even though no wires or solder was touching, the wires were not necessarily soldered well. The wires could be moved or wiggle and were not completely secured down or stayed in place with solder, so I needed to resolder the protoboard wires again to hopefully get my project working again, to where the wires can't wiggle or move out of place, defeating the purpose of soldering.
December 4th: Today, I resoldered all of the wires, except one of the wires that was already secure on my protoboard. I resoldered all of them to the point where they could not be moved at all. They could not move freely or wiggle at all. This way, my soldering would hopefully work, allowing my buzzer and vibration motor, and whole project to work. Hopefully the wires would be secure enough now to have my project function.
December 5th: Today, we sidetracked from our projects to have a civil engineer and a contracting company talk to us about the plans in construction at our school, but also what is like to work in the civil engineering industry.
December 6th: Today, we sidetracked again and talked to engineers working for Cisco, the company that controls the wifi at our school, about why we wanted to be in engineering as a female. We also told them about our projects and previous projects we had worked on and why we took engineering in the first place, and our potential futures in the field.
December 7th: Today, I resoldered one of the wires on the protoboard again because it was still a little loose and I did not want that to cause another problem with my project not working. I tested my project again being connected to the computer as a power source, and the vibration motor was still not working and the buzzer never stopped buzzing loudly. I changed the distance for the buzzer on my code to 70 from 90, and then I changed it to 30 to make the buzzing alarm go off when the sensor is closer to objects, and so the buzzer would stop going off for so long so far away. I also wanted to make sure my vibration motor still worked, so I used a coin battery to test if the motor was still working or could still vibrate, and it could, so I will have to find the root of this problem in either my code, but more likely in my wiring. My project is getting closer and closer to functioning though.
December 11th: Today, I soldered my vibration motor and buzzer to wires. I was hoping that soldering these wires would help any possible loose connections made by the aligator clips to the buzzer and vibration motor, and hopefully this would make my vibration motor and buzzer both work in my project. I used female to male jumper wires, rather than soldering to the buzzer. I also resoldered, again, the one wire on my protoboard that was still a little loose. I wanted to make sure that there was no way for the wires to be loose or wiggle in anyway, creating a bad connection, causing my project not to work, and I hoped that all this soldering would help my project work correctly soon.
December 12th: Today, I worked on trying to find an adapter to have my battery connect to my arduino. I found a typical one with two wires on the end, which is what it had on the tutorial website I was using. I spent most of the day trying to come up with various ways I could connect the wires of the adaptor to my arduino because the tutorial did not show how and it was not very clear on where I would put either the ground or power wires to my arduino, so I would need to solve this issue. I also tested my project connected to the computer for power again just to make sure it still worked, and the buzzer still works.
December 13th: Today, I used a usb adaptor that had been wire stripped and exposed a ground and power wires that I needed, and could solder my slide switch to, all while having a usb cord attached to it, so my battery could attach to my arduino more easily. I soldered the slide swtich, the middle prong to a red wire that went to the usb port adaptor, and the last prong to the adaptor on the battery. I soldered the ground or black wire from the usb port adaptor to the connector of the battery. I tested this on my board, and it did not work. I used a multimeter to test my battery to see if it worked, and it turned out to have a voltage less than 9v, so I got a new battery that when I used a multimeter on it, was above 9v. This could have been the main issue in my project. I will test it next class.
December 14th: Today, I resoldered one of the red, or power, wires to the other end of the switch because that is how it is shown on the tutorial, and I wanted to eliminate any potential issues before I tested my project again. I moved the wire on the last prong, to the first prong on the slide switch. When I tested my project with the battery and the adapter with the usb port and slide switch, the vibration motor did not work, but the buzzer kind of worked, not working consistently though. When I tested my board with an adaptor that had a adaptor connector and no slide switch, just connected to the battery, both the vibration motor and the buzzer worked at the respective distances, so the problem with my slide switch must either be the soldering or wiring.
December 16th: Today, I purchased the pvc pipe necessary to make the cane for my project. The long part of the cane is 4 feet long, and the short part of the cane is around half a foot long. There is an elbow connector pvc piece holding the two parts of the cane together. The cane is a little tall, but that is all relative to my height too, but I can make the little adjustment of trying to make it shorter if possible. I still need to add my intelligence to the cane and add insulation tape over top of the cane to complete or have my project work.
December 17th: Today we did another side track and walked around the construction zone of the new building going up at our school.
December 18th:Today, I tested my project again with the two different adaptors I have. When I used the adaptor with the slide switch, the battery and slide switch wires both got very hot and neither the buzzer or vibration motor, so I think there is a poor connection somewhere creating this problem, so I will have to resolder this again probably. Also, when I tested using the normal adaptor, both the vibration motor and buzzer worked, but did not stop, and this could be due to the fact that the sensor was near other objects, so I will have to keep testing with that adaptor and fix or alter my usb port adaptor to finish my project.
December 19th: Today, I finished my project by resoldering the slide switch to be back to the original first prong it was on that the red wire was connected to on the usb port adaptor. After doing this and testing to make sure my code and project worked within the distance, I put the intelligence in a box, that would be attached to the cane I created, and made cut outs for the ultrasonic sensor to be open to seeing the object in front of them. I also left an opening for slide switch and put the battery outside the box, so the intelligence can be turned off and the battery could be switched, but overall I finished my initial design of the sensored cane, but there are a few kinks I still need to work out, but the cane was functioning well today, but there needs to be made a few adjustments to make the cane work more consistently, like resoldering the red wire from the usb port to the slide switch middle prong, it was secure but now loose, so I to make project more complete I can do this. Also vibration motor, one of the wires that it is soldered to is loose and needs to have a tighter connection like the slide switch to function more consistently. I used tape to secure these bad connections. My project did work, I just need to work out these kinks. I also added a QR code to my project to be able to access my portfolio and so others can see how I built my cane.