Embedded Files
Hello! Welcome to my Digital and Analog progress page. I will be doing regular updates on projects and other activities related to the class. Thank you for looking a my work!
Area of strength as an engineer: One of my strong suits as an engineer and even more importantly a student of electronics is my ability to look for proper resources. Often times when I'm stuck, I turn to a partner next to me, or raise my hand to ask a question. I believe learning is a process best done when you can rely on others and others can rely on you as guides.
Area of growth as a engineer: One area of growth as an engineer is my commitment. A lot of times when the product isn't instantly what I had envisioned, I tend to feel down or lose interest in the project. Although I do believe I should think more positively , a good 80% of the process in any art is rarely what you envision. Only once all the pieces are together you will see an accumulation of your work.
3 documentation goals:
One commitment is I will do my best to properly date each of my images. To give a better view of my progress through time.
Two I commit to adding clear photos, that depict only the object of purpose. This will make the images direct to what I'm working at hand.
Three I commit to creating a tabel of contents thus the viewer is able to reach there point of interest with little to no effort of scrolling though something they have seen before.
Quote to keep in mind through my process of designing and engineering my speaker: Have no fear of perfection you'll never reach it - Salvador dalli.
First duo PCB design:
First duo PCB design:
Date:
During todays class, the primary focus was to design and create a circuite board for and LED. For this task we worked with partners, The duo was Amy and me. We used a software called Eagle to create all our schematic sequences. Once done we flipped the screen so the software represente a board witch we can truncate and alter for our needs. During this step we worked on organizing our components on the board thus electricity was not passed incorrectly. Once done we would save our file and transfer it to _______________. Here we would send it to the company where we can have the basic presents or we can customize to the boards.
Board Design: For our board first board we wanted to go with a simple but fun design. Originally we wanted to create a snake-like board. Although we came to realize that could potentially make circuitry complicated and ineffective. Thus we decide on a circlular design. As you can see our design requires heavy silk screening. We will have a sun where the battery will be located. then the lines going away from the batter will be rays of sun where we will scatter the led lights. At the bottom of the circuit, we will have iced mountains.
Board work:
In this duo partner work we broke the responsibility of the board right down the middle. I would work on the design and organization of the board and my partner would take on the responsibly of doing the schematics.
During my work on the board, I became a lot more accustomed to using layers in eagle. Each layer is already named yet they are the acronyms of the whole name. Once you sort of get used to the general acronyms, it's not to bad navigating toward silkscreen, top layer and other such things.
Schematic work:
Like I mentioned before most of the schematics was done by partner where we later transfered to my computer to be organized on the board. The biggest time save we found during this segment was to copy and past a lot of the components as they would be repeated multiple times. Such as LED and resistors. The second thing we learned is the usage of auto routing. This made basically connected all are components in a neat and hands-free way.
Final circuit Board:
To the right is the final product of this board. As mentioned before the general permimiter is pretty basic. We decided on a circled and worked on creating fun designs in top of the board with silk-lining.
My partner for this project was Amy Apple. We faced a couple of walls but she was a great help in troubleshooting through them.
Speaker ideations: September 8th, 2022
Speaker ideations: September 8th, 2022
During today's class we were given multiple proms Some general descriptions and names of each are below:
1: the walking bome box
2: Weapon of ages
3. Time speaks
4. box within a box
5. speed
6. The hand of that one os
7. Retro fember speaker
8. Sloped sound.
9. Day to 天
10. Engineers box.
11. Dual design
12. Dance dance institution.
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DRAFT OF SELECTED ENCLOSURE FOR SPEAKERS:
DRAFT OF SELECTED ENCLOSURE FOR SPEAKERS:
9/14
For my final enclosure for my speaker I decided on on the design of an arcade machine. I did so due that it's simplicity would allow me to complete the Full project. Although even further it would allow me to work on a lot of the smaller components that make an arcade machine what it is. Such as a small digital screen, buttons, little knobs. and a variety of other possibilities. My goal is to make it the most realistic mini Machine I can make it!
3D Rhino visualization:9/27/22:
3D Rhino visualization:9/27/22:
In this image you can se the side profile of the speaker. Although the main body of the container is box. There is a smaller more complex shape attached to it. There I will add little buttons and tone nobs. My goal is it to simulate the game board of a arcade matching
As you can see in this image there is a hole and large empty rectangular space. The small hole will be the entry for a lot of cables such as batter charger or other such things. The large empty space in the back panel will be a view window. I know clear plexy is pretty messy to glue to wood. Although I plan to use clear purple plexi. Witch will allow you to see and inside and not make the glue as visable.
In this last photo, you can see the 2d plans of my wood. Each panel from large to small pieces can be found here. Due that my design is pretty simple large pieces are the primary user of the wood, and the smaller pieces are the ones that will go on the small box in front.
CardBoard-Proto typing:
As seen in the image above this is the general design I will be trying to achieve in my final enclosure. I'm proud of the general shape and size. It's difficult at times navigating that on Rhino 3D. I was a bit worried of the box in front of the speakers as it will be made of multiple small pieces. Although luckily everything came into place just perfectly .Now seeing it I notice that the width will indeed play a role how well those small pieces fit. Thus I will start trouble shooting new ways to bypass that. On a similar topic another important discovery of the design is that the tongues that go into the side panels are a bit too short. I'm confident the width is correct on the File. Although the length of those tongues can be at least a centimeter longer. This will Allow for a snug tight fit. If possible avoiding using glue is my goal. To conclude, thus far The process has been quite smooth. Some adjustments here and there should get the file ready for to use to laser cut the wood.
10/19/22
This is the progress thus far on the breed-boarding of the circuitry of the speaker. I did my best to do most steps by reading schematics over the images provided. Although it came inevitable to have to reference the photos when something overheated or simply wires were making the wrong connections.
Through the process of working on this step, I most defiantly became more comfortable with schematics. I understood the references to general pieces, such as capacitors, LEDs, and other such things. Although volume know and other components in schematic form were a bit more difficult to understand what they were. I also understood the importance of checking the temperature of each component! If something like the chip feels like it's heating rapidly immediately shut down power. It's very possible a wire isn't in the right direction. Or possibly you might not be connected to the ground. In both instances leaving power on can burn your components, which no one wants or needs.
When reflecting on the work I did on the breadboard. The purpose I see is that it allows one to be able to be as messy with the circuitry and system. Unlike anofficial board that requires you to sauder on the components. Breadboard allows you to put, remove, and replace wires, knobs, aux, and other such things without having to un-sauder. It's like a playground for ideas, once you have what you like you take it to a much nice board were it would permanently be saudered.
Short adventure into coding: Python intro 10/26/22
Short adventure into coding: Python intro 10/26/22
The main challenge that we had chosen to work on, what to create a code that would print 3 random values between 40-60. The image shows we decided to do a little bit more than just 3 random inputs.
The solution we ended up with was to us (random.randrange). This input was the key in making the 40,60 a ranage rather than a just a printed input.
Coding isn't my strongest suit. Although I can see my self wanting to get a bit more into it over time, and improving as I go.
PCB Design and Organization 10/26/2022
PCB Design and Organization 10/26/2022
In the image, to the left, you are viewing the schematic routing of the PCB, me that my partner Tanish Ramchandani worked on. A PCB is an acronym for Printed Circuit Board. Its primary purpose is to be the final permanent board for our components. Anything from the aux to the chip will be soldered onto the board. The nice thing about PCB is it is no longer necessary to use wires to connect components to components. The PCB we modeled lets the manfactured know what connections we would like our board to have.
In the image to the left, you can see the top view of the board the team organized. This is a relative view of how the physical board the manufacturing company would send us. Important to keep in mind all the components shown will have to be saudered on. They are the same ones we used on the breadboard. The blue and Red wires are from the air wire. Air wires witch allow the flow of electricity trough each component.
Working with Micro-controller : Playground
Working with Micro-controller : Playground
My partner was Amy Apple
To the image at the right you can see the code that we created. The idea to create a sequence where one light turned on while the previous would turn off.
In the image to your right you can see the code the team had worked on. The goal of the code was to make the LED lights switch colors between red and blue depending on cetain temeratures around the room. For say if the micro-controller detected temperatues of lower than 60 F it will turn blue and if higher than 60 F it would be RED LED lights.
Image of micro-controller coming soon
The video to the right shows the micro-controller in action! You should be able to see how we manipulated the heat sensor to alternate from RED and BLUE weather it detected heat greater than 60 Farenheight .
The image to the rights is the photo of the actual micro controller. As you can see it's a very small device no greater than an two inches and half in length and an inch in width. The micro-controller is compose of a set of 24 individual LED lights. With the capacity of being able to control the individual lights, there is quite a few creative things you can do during coding.
Working and soldering a Micro-controller/Feather-board:
Working and soldering a Micro-controller/Feather-board:
My partner was Henry Gammell
Quick note: Henry has had quite a rich background in coding and soldering. The witch was good as I could really on him for any questions that partook with the coding.
In the image to the right, you can see the coding me and my partner worked on. Keep in my most of the coding was not our original code. We had taken in from "learn.adafruit.com". Although to keep it straightforward, the code was a basis to allow text to be displayed across the screen. Most of the code worked fine, although we did hit multiple walls when we had to upload new files to the microcontroller or incorporated the wrong ones.
One of the last things me and my partner experimented was with displaying the time on the micro-controller. As you might notice the date is inacurate as well as the time of day. We ran out of time before we could change it. Although if we have the opportunity to return, I would love to create those changes.
There is a small secondary device connected to the micro-controller, sadly it is cut out from the image. Although it's a small device with a batter that allows for time to be displayed. If i'm able to take a picture of it I will post it later on.
There is no image for code. Running a the time on the micro-controller was driven by the small secondary device connected to it. Although it was crucial to download certain files related to time.
This was done in the same submission as above, thus my partner was still Henry Gammell.
Plans for Digital Project:
Plans for Digital Project:
The digital project can be an addition to your speaker or a stand-alone device. It does not need to be elaborate.
What are you thinking about doing?
For my digital Project I would love to have the feather-board, that displays a small animation. This will most definatly go on my Speaker. If I were to place it anywhere I would place it on the top of the speaker like the tradional aracade machines. Word would pass by saying the name and then a small animation would appear. My speaker will be referancing a arcade machine, Thus having this little screen would add to the easthetic.
What is your idea?
How do you image it working?
I can image it just turning on everytime I turn on the batter of the speaker. Immediately when the speaker starts I would like the board to display what I want it to display. As well every now and then show the time. and temperature.
What devices will it use?
Like I mentioned before the feather board, the little time components, and the internal temperature device will be my primary focused for this digital project. Now most of this will be connected to the board that is then connected to the battery source. Thus making sure I have a long wire to create the connection is important. Then due as the board will be outside, I need to find a way to glue it through the hole or potentially find a more effective form of limiting the rattling and falling of each component.
Create a quick sketch that shows how the device could look when complete.
Circuit board before applying cicurcuits and components!
Circuit board before applying cicurcuits and components!
circuit Board post applying components!
circuit Board post applying components!
In the image to the right one can see the final product after tranfering the components from the breadboard to the final board. For the most part this went pretty well. Although I did accidentally solder some pieces that needed spacing. As well I still have some feedback from the speaker when playing music. I bealive this is due to loose ends where electricyt is passing. I will fix this as soon as possible.
What do you need to no next?
This is so far the large pieces o my wooden encluser. I really like how it's going. I've re cut some of the pieces not included in this image but they require a bit of adjustments witch I will work on through this upcoming week.
What's your plan to complete this by the end of the semester?
Ideally I woul love to complete the whole thing. Realitictins I'm sure this is possible. I've planned my week out pretty well and I should be able to finish most on time. Sadly I bealive I won't be able to add the digital project components I wanted too. Althoguh being a minor thign I would love to add later on.
Final Speaker: Post completion
Final Speaker: Post completion
To the images in the right one can see my final Speaker. For the most part Im pretty happy although there are a lot of components I wasn't able to incorporate on time. Such as the digital project witch would be incorporated as a small animation screen for a coin slot. The tone knob as joysticks. An other small pieces of wood for buttons. Lastly I was able to wood burn the logo on the side, Yet If I had more time I would like to go back and make the width of the letters bigger. On the positive end I was able to complete a speaker! I was a week behind due to a trip with my family. Although for the most pat I was able to come back and get right to work. I experiences troubles with my Rhino file not having proper dimensions. I accidentally burned my pieces multiple times. An even further my circuits would buzz and overheat! Despite these challenges I was able to pull through will something I'm mostly happy with. If I could go back and do it all again I would love to be more careful when designing on rhino. Although the comical proportions are funny to me I would have reference more the design of an actual arcade machine.
Conclusion:
Thank you for going through my semester project in Digital and Analog! I had quit and experience being able to work with soldering and laser cutting. When I reflect back on the moments in this class a certain quote comes to mind, "In the process of creation there is no perfection rather the intention to reflect on ones steps toward improvement". Was this my best work, probably not, did I try, indeed I did, even so, if I were to repeat this class a thousand times over I truly enjoyed exploring an area I had little experience with before. Well this is my sign off, Thank you!
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