Ruby Kilar

Strengths/areas for growth in the design/engineering process:

A area of strength for me is the ideation and prototype phase. I feel that I am able relatively easily draft many ideas (without committing to one), visualize them/turn them into drawings, and then create a lower scale/quality tangible prototype.
One area of growth for me is remembering the specifics of the circuit board -- namely... how to create one with multiple (more complex) elements in it, the symbols in a schematic, and how the overall circuit works (flow of energy).

3 things I want to commit to during the documentation of this project:

Writing detailed descriptions such that I can look back and make sense of them
Clear, high quality photos
Organization (distinction between projects/titles for each section...)

Six PCB idea drawings (Due 9/1)

Our 6 ideas were a smiley face, wave, LWHS logo, bird, turtle, and airplane. We ended up deciding to draw the turtle and use Rhino as our tool for outlining the shape. We decided to use this idea because it felt the most unique, and we think the use of etching into the PCB board to display the turtle shell would really make our design interesting and more unique.

Collaborative PCB design project (Due 9/8)

To the right is a screenshot of our board and schematic for our collaborative PCB. We decided to make a board that resembles the shape of a turtle, with 8 leds and resistors all in a parallel circuit. My partner for this project was Marcus. I will remember how important it is to save the project when you're working, how to use Eagle to layout your design, and how parallel vs. series circuts differ.

10 Speaker Designs - Ideation (Due 9/12)

I am most likely to peruse my ideas of the juice box (6), organic (4), car (5), and disco ball box (9). I think these ideas all have potential to be unique ideas that stand apart from other ideas that we've seen before.

I am concerned that the organic design (4) and the car design (5) will be hard to make given the complex shapes and the materials we will be using (curves and wood?). I am also wondering what material I will use to make the reflectiveness on the box (tiles?).

Post-It Feedback (HW Due: 9/14)

Final Sketch (HW Due: 9/18)

Rhino Design (HW Due: 9/29)

What materials are you thinking of using?

Wood (birch); maybe acryic for around the speaker (depending on the layout of the tiles); reflective tiles from Amazon (small-ish ones to give the "disco" effect)

What are you uncertain about in terms of how the project will fit and hold together?

I'm not sure how the tiles will lay out around the speakers themselves. I really like the clean, sleek look that it has right now (and in my drawing sketch **see above**), but I'm not sure as to how I will execute this with the tiles.

Cardboard Prototype (HW Due: 10/13)

My cardboard protoype shows a surface level, 3-D model of my disco ball box idea. This model doesn't include the detail of the joints (between the 6 faces to make the box), the size/scale/exact position of the reflective tiles, or the holes for the screws of my speakers. However, it is to scale, with the proper dimensions for my speakers, and includes the general layout of where the reflective tile detail will go.

AMP Breadboard (HW Due: 10/25)

This is a breadboard of the AMP that will go inside of my speaker will look like (and the key parts included in it -- light, power source, switch, bluetooth...).

During this process, I learned how to read more complicated schematics (and turn them into a breadboard), how the breadboard functions, and what it will look like once in my speaker.
Overall, this was a really cool process that I really enjoyed and I feel I was able to better understand the inner workings of my and AMP/speaker!

In-Class Python Worksheet #1 (10/27)

In-Class Python Worksheet #2 (10/31)

Documentation: Amp PCB design and schematic (HW Due: 11/2)

I worked with Avery. For this project, we spit up the work pretty evenly. As we went through the instructions and the adding of new parts to the schematic and circuit board, Avery and I would switch off on who was executing the steps on the computer vs. who was describing the instructions from the document. Yes. During this project, I was able to learn more about how to the online schematics and boards more directly translate (on both a visual and technological front) to the breadboard.

Documentation: One of the challenges solved with your microcontroller (HW Due: 11/9)

What challenge did you try to solve?

We didn't have time in class to do the challenges, but this is what my partner and I did.

What was your solution?

Here, we used the importing of an image to make the board say "enjoy life" and put an image on it.

Link to GitHub: https://gist.github.com/Ruby-kilar/04126476c37b6a8abe9e7af6ba0ddf55

Documentation: One of the challenges solved with your microcontroller (HW Due: 11/13)

What challenge did you try to solve?

My partner and I were able to get the screen and serial to output the weather in San Francisco. Additionally, we began working with API's and were able to output a random headline from the NYT. **See to the left for our code of the weather**

Link to GitHub: https://gist.github.com/Ruby-kilar/a58e0e807b8652a5b5bf2291fb0cf28e

Documentation: What I'm creating as my digital project (HW Due: 11/15)

For my digital project, I plan to use the Feather M4 Express (with an attatchedOLED screen) technology to display sliding text that says "disco! [with a disco ball image]" onto the side of my speaker. Please see below for mock-up image.

Documentation: un-soldered circuit board (HW Due: 11/28)

This is a picture of my circut board that my partner (Avery) and I designed in Eagle before the amplifier parts are soldered onto it. From here, I will solder on the parts and then it will (hopefully) work as the speaker for my design.

Documentation: Soldered portable PCB board

This is the final, soldered version of the my turtle PCB board that I made in Eagle with my partner, Marcus. I began by soldering the battery on and then I put the switch, followed by the lights and resistors. The portable PCB board is a piece of acrylic with wiring throughout it (you design the layout and connnections online and then send it into a company to print it) and then, when it's printed, you can solder on the light, resistors, switch, and battery to make a working, functioning portable circuit.

Documentation: Soldered AMP circuit

This is a photo of my fully soldered amplifier circuit. This is the part of my speaker that is responsible for the sound production of my speaker and will live inside of my enclosure. I feel that during this process, not only did I learn more about what each part of the circuit does, but I also was able to learn how to be really precise with my soldering.

Documentation: Enclosure *so far*

So far, (after finishing my amp circuit), I've been able to laser cut 4 of my 6 pieces of wood (see to the right). I have the front and back, and the left and right sides. When I initially laser cut my bottom and top, the dimensions weren't correct so I'm going to have to re-laser cut them. I have also been able to add the disco aspect to the enclosure. So aside form re-printing the top and bottom, I just have to laser cut out the acrylic square that will go directly around the rim of the speaker, and screw in my speakers.

Final Mirror Box Speaker

During this process, one of the most helpful things that I learned was how to use the laser cutter. I wasn't totally confident using it in the beginning, but as I made mistakes and had to re-cut parts of my speaker, I became more confident using it and now feel that I could instruct somone else to use it aswell!

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