This week I completed everything I aimed to following proposal presentation week. I wanted to order a handful of solenoids to test before deciding which ones we will be using to depress the piano keys. Additionally, I ordered a handful of MOSFETs designed to handle high voltage and current, which is perfect for our project since solenoids require a high voltage and draw about one ampere of current. Being able to get my hands on those parts as soon as possible was my top priority, and since I was able to get them within the week, we were also able to test the solenoids with a power source, our raspberry pi, and the MOSFETs I ordered. All the parts worked exactly as planned, and now that we have tested the different solenoids, we have decided to go with the Adafruit 25 N solenoids.
Image of our single MOSFET and solenoid circuit:
As of this week I am on track according to the first iteration of our Gantt chart. I had hoped to get some parts ordered and tested by the end of the week, and that is exactly what I accomplished. Furthermore, I have helped a little with our design presentation and will be the audience for Rahul tomorrow when he practices for the presentation.
Next week, I hope to order the rest of our soleniods and MOSFETs, so I can begin building what will hopefully be the final circuitry for our accompanyBot. Additionally, I would like to help Nora develop the python code that will turn the MOSFETs on and cause the solenoids to move according to the XML file produced by the optical music parser. Lastly, if I have time, I would like to think about what the final structure that will be holding the circuitry and microcontroller will look like and possibly have a rough mockup of it sketched.
Finally, I used skills primarily developed in 18220 throughout the course of the past week. Specifically, skills relating to principles 6 and 5 enumerated in our team report. 18220 helped develop analytical and team skills that I was able to utilize when working on the project and putting together a basic circuit to power the solenoids.