This week was really crazy because of Carnival, but I was still able to make good progress. I started to make a smaller breath sensor, but I still need to attach the latex to the sensor and mount it inside the controller. I worked with Angel to send gyroscope and breath sensor data to the RPi, so now we have all data being sent to the Pi. I also used batteries to power the controller completely wirelessly.

I’m a little bit behind schedule this week because I wanted to have finished the final breath sensor but it’s not completely done. I hope to finish it early next week so I can get back on track.

Next week I hope to finish the breath sensor and mount it inside the controller, solder some new buttons, and attach the BLE inside the controller. Then, I hope to test out the feel and accuracy of the controller to make a plan for any final adjustments.

This week, the first thing I accomplished was successfully testing the gyroscope on the Arduino Nano BLE. I found out that it’s actually best for us to use the accelerometer instead of gyroscope for the degree difference from the horizontal, and I was able to write a simple program to print out the degrees the Arduino is pointing up and down. This is good because now we won’t have to attach a separate gyroscope/accelerometer module for orientation feedback.

Another thing I did this week was make a prototype for a much more stable and more accurate breath sensor. I was able to make the breath sensor closer to how it will look inside the flute, and all of the pieces are currently secured through hot glue or tape, which makes it much more durable and easier to test. I’m struggling a bit with the placement of the latex barrier, because the piece is quite small and likes to move around, but I was able to make a much more accurate version than last week. The program prints out the distinction between light breath and harder breath much more accurately.

The last thing I did this week was work with Angel to send button data from the Arduino to the RPi. I provided her with a circuit with nine small buttons and she was able to display the changes in the keys pressed on the RPi with good accuracy and latency.

In terms of project schedule, I’m a bit behind. I was hoping to work on the physical controller this week (by cutting and drilling in the PVC) but I couldn’t find a good diagram of the placements of the button on the flute so I didn’t want to drill them based on my guess. I asked Judenique to measure out the distances on her own flute and send them over to me, but due to conflicts in our schedules she couldn’t get them to me by the end of the week (but will soon). I’m hoping to catch up next week, by Wednesday I have set myself a deadline to complete the tail end of this week’s work and I hope to have enough time to also do the work I planned to do next week after Wednesday.

By Wednesday, I hope to cut and drill holes in the PVC and make another, smaller breath sensor that could fit inside the controller. Between Wednesday and Saturday, I hope to attach buttons onto the controller and send that information to the RPi, testing the accuracy and feel of the device.