Updates for the week
I got the Arduino working wirelessly. To work around the wifi issue I had last week, I connected the Arduino to the “CMU-Device” network and registered its MAC address on CMU’s device registration website. I also tested the range at which it could receive data and it worked up to 6ft away, which meets our design requirements. I also noticed that there was some lag issues with the response time for the Arduino that I need to explore further.
The next concern with the Arduino was ensuring it could receive and parse a POST request. Our TA, Omkar, suggested that we use POSTMAN to send a POST request signal to the Arduino IDE since we don’t have the JSON response part of the software ready just yet. I tested this out and was able to see the POSTMAN response on the IDE, but have not yet downloaded the library to parse the response. It’s not a huge concern right now, but I should be able to get this working next week.
I also ordered the RGB lights for the vest. I initially intended on ordering a matrix of rgb lights but this was unfeasible since the library needed to run the cheaper rgb matrices disabled interrupt signals, which is needed for the i2c expander that Sophia is working on. Instead, I pivoted to ordering rgb light strips from Adafruit that I could just arrange to be in a matrix format, although I need to figure out how I’m going to lay it out in such a way that it will stick to the inside lining of the vest and not move.
Progress On Schedule
In terms of the schedule, since the lights will be coming in this week, I will need to dedicate more time to also getting at least one algorithm to work for the lights. I’m aiming to have the first iteration of the “low health” light algorithm working. I’ll do this by first choosing which rgb values I want for the algorithm, then program the leds flash at varying frequencies. I don’t anticipate this step will take too long. I will then work with Sophia to get the flashing synchronized with her low health motor algorithm. I also still haven’t completed any Eagle tutorials. I meant to do it before break, but got caught up in finalizing the report so I didn’t have much time to complete the tutorials.
Deliverables for next week
For this upcoming week, I will ensure I can correctly parse the POST request data in the Arduino IDE. I will also program the lighting sequence for the “low health” algorithm and lastly but most importantly, I will do some Eagle tutorials in order to design a PCB that can hold our motors. This last one is extremely important so I will dedicate ~30min every day of the week to do this and ask questions to our TA who has experience designing and ordering a custom PCB.