Embedded Files
Hello!
Hello!
A strength I have in engineering and design is my ability to collaborate and problem solve! I work well in groups, and will work tirelessly at concepts until I am able to figure them out.
An area for growth is my overall understanding of coding and online tools like Rhino---I hope to feel more confident in this by the end of the semester!
Three things I want to commit to within the documentation of my learning and projects:
Take lots of photos! Documenting my process will help me stay on track and recognize areas of growth, which will better equip me to ask for assistance.
Write about my progress---I can look back and understand my thought process if I take good notes.
I want to document all of my ideas during the drafting and ideation process, whether good or bad.
We decided to use the spider design in the middle of the left page. We chose this design because we liked the LED placement on it the best, and felt it was the most creative of all our designs. We also thought the outline would look the best as a PCD board!
For this project, Anakarina and I created a spider circuit board. There is one LED light on every leg of the spider. One thing I will remember about printed circuit board design is the difficulty of transferring Eagle to Rhino, but also the fun of the final piece!
These are my ten ideas for the speaker! The ideas I'm mostly likely to move forward with are the retro speaker, the flower speaker, and the cooler speaker. I have design concerns about the flower speaker and the cooler speaker because they both seem difficult to make, especially in the amount of time I have. The retro speaker seems like a more plausible option.
Here is the rhino 3D model of my speaker!
For the two main front and back pieces, I am thinking of using wood! I chose wood for a more rustic approach. For the curved middle portion, I am planning to use metal that I will spray paint (not sure about the color yet, but most likely white.) Lastly, for the volume knob, I am hoping to use acrylic to add a little pop of color. The only uncertainty I have about my speaker is fitting the wood and metal pieces together securely---I want them to fit tightly and seamlessly.
This is my 3D Model! It is very simple, yet I love the curved design of it. The front and back pieces will be wood, and the rounded side part will be spray-painted metal. I am planning on having a clock in the upper left hole!
My Amp Circuit
My Amp Circuit
This is my completed amp circuit on my breadboard, with Bluetooth! Something I learned during this process was how a speaker actually works. I also feel much more confident in my soldering/circuiting skills in general.
Amp PCB Design and Schematic!
This is the schematic and board for our amp PCB, which will be part of our speaker. We initially physically created a Bluetooth working board, then did it online so that we can print the real boards that will be inside our speakers. I worked with Kai on the Eagle portion of the project, and we managed to split up the work very evenly. We did the entire project together, and we would switch off between who had their computer open with the instructions and who was actively doing the Eagle part. Since we did the entire project as a team and both saw every part through, we easily each met the "minimum 10 contributions" requirement. I think I definitely learned a lot doing this online, and I feel that I understand Eagle a lot better. This was definitely significantly more complicated than the first circuit board!
Microcontroller Challenge!
As the group didn't get to the challenges, we completed the initial task of putting text on the screen. We were able to have the text switch back and forth through saying hola and adios! We solved this challenge by carefully following the steps that were on the A&D page, and we were very diligent about making sure our code was correct.
Link to code: gist:f927585a7b45bdd9c72e82abedad4227
Microcontroller Challenge #2
We solved the challenge of embedding an image onto our microcontroller! We did the original image of the adorable blinka little guy. We solved this challenge by copying in the code and fixing the problems that came our way. For example, when the image wasn't working, we redownloaded the folder and made sure the image was in the right location with the correct title.
Gist link: gist:f6fcd68045300379571421dd25026bff
Digital Project
For my digital project, I am going to create a real time clock. I will be using the Feather ESP32-S2, because that is the only one that can track time. I will also use Mu to make the code. This digital project will be a part of my speaker, in the upper left corner. I want to find a way to mount the screen up so just the time shows.
PCB Board before soldering!
Here is a front and back image of my PCB board before I have done any soldering. This PCB will be what makes my speaker work! It will also have Bluetooth abilities. The board is a result of all the earlier Eagle work we did:)
Soldered PCB Board!
Here is my finished and soldered PCB board! It is a spider with 10 LED lights and their corresponding resistors, as well as a switch to turn the lights on and off. I designed this spider PCB board with Anakarina!
Soldered Amplifier Circuit
My soldering skills and knowledge about circuits improved a lot during this process. I also think my problem-solving skills improved, as I learned to persist when frustratingly small issues kept making my speaker not work.
Here is the current progress of my speaker. The speaker plays music, which is a great start! My plan is to re-laser cut the top piece and glue it on top of the current piece to make it look better, as I accidentally spilled glue on the front. I will also remove the hole, because my digital project is no longer going to be part of my speaker. This project has forced me to persist---I have rarely struggled in school as much as I have with my speaker!
For my speaker, I made a retro looking speaker with a metal curved side and a wooden front and back. I am satisfied with the final result of my speaker, and I am proud of the way my speaker sounds. If I could do something differently, I would choose to use wood on the sides instead of metal. The metal made my project much more difficult, as the fit of the wood to the metal couldn't be perfect. A lesson I will take with me is to persist even when a project gets hard!
Page updated
Report abuse