Vivian’s Status Report for 3/19

The week before spring break I spent most of my time working on the design report. This past week, the main thing I accomplished was creating a prototype for our breath control sensor. I connected the LED across from the photodiode, and mounted both sensors on a piece of cardboard with hot glue. I mounted the piece of latex on top of the LED, so when the user blows down like in a flute, the latex covers some of the light from the LED. This varies the values of the sensor. After creating this prototype, I tested the values being read by the Arduino, and it was pretty accurate in detecting a range of readings when I blew down at different speeds.

Another thing I did this week was wired up a series of buttons using Arduino’s pull up resistors. This is similar to the circuit I made a few weeks ago, but with pull up resistors, the circuit doesn’t need any resistors of its own. This will make the circuit easier to mount inside the controller.

I am on schedule. I was hoping to look into the gyroscope readings for this week, but since the BLE module we’re using has a built-in gyroscope, I am more confident in the reliability of that sensor. I plan on getting some readings from that gyroscope next week.

Next week, I plan on beginning to build the pvc controller. I plan to work with Angel to cut the pvc pipe and drill holes to start mounting some buttons inside the controller, and test the feel of the controller compared to an actual flute. I also plan to make a few tweaks to the prototype of the breath sensor to find the design that works best.