Final Project Journal

Dancing with Walls Covid Style

People are depressed and bored sitting in their homes with all the stress and online tasks and working from home; no parties, no going out nothing to change their mood and everyone is fighting his own battle.

I thought of changing the space they are in with dynamic walls that move with the music to give them the motivation and the atmosphere to move their bodies and share fun times with their family or friends.

Breathing Architecture

I thought of the origami to make that flexible moving layer that can contract and expand easily

First of all, I had to export the files/sketches as DXF that I have designed on fusion program, then importing them to laser works to be able to convert them into rld and print it on the laser cutting machine.

What was interesting that I had to use different materials; thin plastic sheets, polyester fabric and cardboard. That's why I had to test a range of different speeds and power to reach the optimum result. (I used them together as a light diffuser)

As for the cardboard, I needed to cut it partially to be able to form the origami and move it in a flexible way that I can control easily.

To cut it fully; I used 50 for the power and 30 for the speed (min. & max.) on laser works

To cut it partially; I used 80 for the speed and 30 for the power on laser works

I also used 6 sheets for the wooden parts of the design; It was recommended then to draw everything inside and avoid touching the edge of the board/framework.

As for the screws and racks, I used the 3D printer to help me customize the needed rack for the design to function, I added a hook-like shape to the rack and combined them. I have duplicated the gears and racks 3 times. Here I used prusa slicer to help me slice the model and print it on the 3D printer.

I have used 16mm screws to fit my design and to join the different parts together.

Each color is connected in parallel to have more pins for the other components to be connected to the Arduino.

First, we had to connect all the LEDs and RGB leds together (positive to positive and negative to negative; for RGB red to red, blue to blue and green to green), then a resistor is connected to the last led in line then to the MOSFET to amplify the voltage in the circuit as the current directed from each group of LED is high and same goes for the three motors; they were connected to each other and then to the MOSFET then to the Arduino.

Secondly, the ultrasonic sensor was connected to the Arduino (pin 4; trigger, pin 7; echo), RGB leds (pin 3, pin5, pin 6), LEDs (pin 11, pin 12, pin 13).

A 9V power supply was connected to the breadboard for the lights to be fully brightened.

The input components are the Ultrasonic sensor and the IR sensor and the song from the computer.

The action components are the motors, LEDs and RGB LEDs.

Ultrasonic Sensor: to convert the motion to light (RGB leds) according to how far the person is standing in front of it.

IR Sensor: to move the motor, open the origami and light up the white light in the middle.

The music from the laptop will light up the RGB leds and less according to the beat of the song leading to a dynamic harmony between the different leds.

RGB LEDs will continue with the music unless someone stands in front of the ultrasonic it will return to its normal function; changing colors according to the distance.

TinkerCad was used to simulate the code before applying it. Arduino was used to upload the code and finally processing was used to play the beat and light the different LEDs.

My power source is the Arduino and a 9V adaptor.

First, I tried the 5V adaptor and the light of LEDs was very low, in order to compromise this situation, the voltage needed to get higher for the lights to be bright and fully lighted up.

Also, MOSFET was needed to distribute the current for the lights, motors to function properly.

Yes, I did not have the knowledge of how to weld wires together and that is why I used the jumpers which took a huge space and wires that could easily be moved.

But then the instructor showed me how to do it and test it and it went well.

Another thing was the speed and power of the laser cutter, someone helped me figure out which speed and power were best to use with the different materials I had for the diffuser.

One other thing was the code, as I did not know how to combine the ultrasonic sensor and other codes to the firmata library in order for the modules to integrate and perform correctly.

Mostly, I have helped my peers more with the design on fusion.

My peers helped me with the connections and the components that I was not sure about.

The instructor suggested using different materials and layers to form the diffuser.

To begin with, I had a problem with the mechanism of the project and how the origami would expand and contract to form the expected shape. That is why I have made an experiment using canson paper and cardboard and it worked, as shown in the video.

Next, when I cut the cardboard I tried to move it and it was flexible and functioning and it went well, even when connected to the rack.

The problem came into after connecting the RGB leds and the normal leds, that is when the cardboard became a bit rigid and the motors nor the racks couldn't move it.

That is why different materials for wiring and origami need to be used in order for the project to move the origami.

Also for the diffuser, I had to use different materials overlapping each other in order for the light to be distributed.

I would change the material of the origami and the wires and find thinner ones or maybe more flexible ones.

would color it in an artistic way.

will connect the mobile application that I have made and use it with speakers instead of the music coming out of the laptop.