Week 5

Dec 5 - Dec 10

This week we mainly worked on setting up the Raspberry Pi to be used in the modules we will build later on. We assembled the Pi into its protective casing so that it wouldn't be as vulnerable to dropping and started worked on setting up the software. After we failed to connect to the Pi via wifi, we decided to take a more traditional approach and connect to it through a borrowed USB cable. We bought a 32 gb micro SD card so that we could use it as storage on the Raspberry Pi.

The Raspberry Pi connected to a USB hub and our micro SD card (right)

We started working on the UI for the app and downloaded an android phone that we can demo the apps on. So far the app doesn't work when we put it on the phone because there are some issues with the Bluetooth. The app needs to ask to connect to Bluetooth to be able to connect to the raspberry pi however we need to add a pop up to ask the user to allow Bluetooth. For now the app just crashes because it tries to use Bluetooth but doesn't have permission.

For this project, we will be using a Raspberry Pi OS LITE, a desktopless version of the linux-based OS. This is because we don't plan on booting up the Pi as its own PC and only need it to run simple code which can just be uploaded through the computer and shouldn't require us to interact with the Pi's system directly. We burned the OS onto the micro-SD card using an adapter that lets us connect it to our computers. This OS let us get the Pi to turn on and boot, but we didn't have time to connect to the Pi with our computer and run code on it.

We also made some significant progress on a website model of what our shop would look like. All paper and pencil sketches for our module ideas were completed, edited, and placed onto the "shop modules" section of the site. Following our idea for making it a subscription service (in which users can choose to trade in modules each month to try different ones), we created a subscription page with three different plans. The plan names conform to the dew theme, called "Sprinkle", "Rain", and "Tempest", allowing the consumers to keep either 2, 4, and 6 modules monthly.

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