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Team Status Report 2/11

We believe the most significant risks to the success of the project currently are the feasibility of wireless charging, the maximum number of devices possible through BLE, and the integration of all the components into the 22mm height permitted. For wireless charging, our backup plan is that the microcontrollers can pass through charge to the LIPO batteries via USB. For the BLE issue, we are managing the risk by looking into alternative BLE standards such as bluetooth mesh, with the backup plan to make some of the keys act as receivers pair multiple of the receivers with the central microcontroller. For the integration, we can use low profile cherry switches and cut down on some of the “nice to haves” such as hot swap capabilities to reduce the Z-height.

There have been no changes so far to the design of the system so far as we have not gotten enough parts in to experience any real integration challenges yet.

We have some pictures of a small inductive charger working posted in Zhejia’s status report.

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Ben’s Status Report for 2/11

This week I worked on ordering the parts and reading up on the BLE programming protocol for the Seeed XIAO nRF52840. I placed an order for 16 microcontrollers through the order form, which are on schedule to get here next week. Additionally, I did research on the BLE protocol and the role of devices in communication. I found that the microcontrollers would be best used in peripheral mode, with a specific GATT (Generalized Attribute) and service for each key. Each key should also only have notify and read permissions.

I believe that I am on schedule to begin programming the basic single key interface with the computer next week when the parts hopefully arrive. In the meantime, I will be continuing to work on the starter code so that once the board gets here, I can begin programming and debugging right away.

For next week, I hope to program a single microcontroller with the ability to determine whether or not a key is pressed and send that data over BLE.

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Ben’s Status Report for 2/4

This week I helped refine the project proposal and refine the use case. We initially thought about switching to a different project, but after some careful consideration, we decided to more clearly define the use case for our current idea. After careful consideration of multiple ideas, we decided to abandon our original I2C connected board and switch to BLE instead. I researched a variety of BLE capable microcontrollers, comparing factors such as size, ease of programmability, price, and availability to settle on the Seeed XIAO BLE. I also looked up the spec sheets of the switches we were planning to use (Cherry MX) and recorded key dimensions to aid in the search for parts. Finally, I tried to find similar projects online to see how we could improve on what’s already on the market, but there was not really anything similar.

My progress has been on schedule since I have made good progress or finished my tasks for the week. These included refining the project scope, performing an initial survey of possible electronic components we would need, and adding my contributions to the powerpoint.

Next week I hope to read up more on the BLE implementation on the Seeed XIAO BLE so I can be ready to program when the parts come in. Additionally, I hope to have the remainder of the parts decided and ideally ordered so we can begin prototyping as soon as possible.