Hello !

Strength: I have a creative side where I am usually able to execute my ideas and/or expand on them.

Growth: Coding is not my forte and it's been a while since I've designed using Rhino. This year I am hoping to get more familiarized with both coding and Rhino.

Three things I am committing to:

Keeping an up-to-date and organized documentation process + site
Clear and well-lit photos
Succinct and clear descriptions (that anyone can easily understand. "As if my audience was just learning about the project")

PCB Sketch Design

My partner for this project is Tanish, and we're planning on making Stewie Griffin. The eyes and the buttons are going to have LED lights and we're planning on placing the battery and switch on the back of the design. It was fun coming up with the idea and we hope it works out!

PCB Schematic and PCB Board

Using Eagle and JCLPCB, Tanish and I created a basic schematic. Using Rhino, we were able to outline the shape of Stewie. Something we learned within the process of making the PCB board was corroboration skills. We had a lot of trouble transporting the shape of Stewie to Eagle from Rhino and realized that we had placed too many points on the outline when working in Rhino. This then caused gaps within Eagle which prevented our board from forming.

10 Amplifier Ideation Sketches

Here are my ten amplifier sketches! I have circled numbers 4, 8, and 10 as I would like to further explore the ideas to create one of them.

Phase 2 Drawing

I've decided to explore the idea of creating a "candlestick" phone for this project. I am very excited to see where this goes but equally as nervous. This design seems like it'll be challenging but also rewarding. I also think it'll be really cool if I am able to execute it. Though it might seem a little ambitious and I will most likely have to come in during some free blocks, I think it'll be interesting and as well as satisfying to program LED lights to light up with the beat of the music on the number wheel.

Rhino Design

These are the cut outs! On the far left is the acrylic sheet which has the base of the phone's dial. The middle and right boards are wood and they contain the rest of the cut-outs.

Microcontroller

My partner Linda and I worked on programming a pattern of lights utilizing the code given in class. However, we struggled with getting the controller to turn on and working with code was new to us which was also a place where we worked on persisting through.

Cardboard prototype

Here is my cardboard prototype! My plan is to have a large wooden dowel that connects to the base and the top speaker. A side speaker will be connected to the wooden tube with another dowel.

Breadboard

This is the final breadboard with the speakers. Through the process of breadboarding, I struggled and persisted. There is a microchip in the middle of the board -- this was something I had burnt up when turning on my board due to short-circuiting. I had completed a run-through of the schematics and couldn't detect the issue. I had also used precut wires and wasn't quite sure if some of the wire legs were long enough in the breadboard so concluded that it would be best to restart the breadboarding processes once again. The second time around wasn't as bad, I had a cleaner-looking breadboard, changed the microchip, and had Mr. Kleindolph check everything. We eventually got the speakers to work!

Soldered PCB Board

To the left is the schematic for my amplifier board. And to the right is the layout of the PCB board. Rajiv and I were short on time with this part of the project, as we had some errors when assembling the schematics board. Thus, we had to restart the process but we availed!

Soldered PCB Board

This is my final PCB of Stewie with all the pieces soldered together. This was a difficult process for me as I had created an incorrect schematic to begin with. Some of the lights do not work but nonetheless, it was rewarding to see some light up!

Digital Project

For my digital project, I think it would be cool to have LED lights to blink with the beat of the song and the volume turn-dial to be in the middle of the number dial. I would either utilize the circuit playground for the lights or hook up LED's to the circuit board.

Unsoldered Circuit Board

Here is my unsoldered circuit board! I had some trouble with the placements of the various pieces when I began the soldering process but I eventually got the hang of it.

Soldered Circuit Board

This is my soldered circuit board! I did have some trouble with connecting all the pieces together at first however, I worked through those challenges and was able to get a working board. I did switch up the positive and negative legs when soldering my LED light, which thankfully, didn't hinder anything. The light just won't light up when I turn the board on.

Enclosure Progress

This is the current progress of my speakers! Everything is glued together and the speaker board works as well. The only thing I would like to work on is finding a way to close the back of the base and sand away the glue residue.

Finished Speaker!

What did you make?

My final enclosure is made up of two boxes that contain the speakers, a base in which the speaker board and battery reside, and a wooden hollowed-out tube that connects the wires together. There is a wooden dial that spins and the speaker on the right side is connected to the large wooden tube with a dowel. This is my candlestick phone, a more loose/liberal interpretation of one.

Thinking about the work you created, what are you most satisfied with this semester?

I am most satisfied with the commitment and patience I had with this project this semester. There were many times when I struggled with the schematics and the circuit board costed me time as I decided to restart the whole breadboarding process. Nonetheless, this was a rewording project as I learned a lot about myself and the hands-on experience.

If you were to start over, knowing what you know, what would I do differently?

Knowing what I know, if I were to start over something I would do differently would be time management and prototyping. There were some pieces that didn't fit properly in the end but I just went with it and I also could've spent time working on the digital project, something I didn't get to.

What is a lesson from this class that you will take with you and use in future projects?

I learned how to be flexible and the importance of taking time with the project. Yes, there were times when I was confused, wasn't sure if I should leave the first design and make a whole new one. But commitment was key and working out the various problems was beneficial.

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