With one week left, and a new RFID tag coming in, I worked on ensuring communication between the new tag and RFID is working. This entailed creating code to upload to the RFID that can allow the RFID to sense the ISO type of the tag. Due to issues with our PCB, I worked on a breadboard version of our design, as well as currently working on the microphone on the breadboard, as our digital solderpad version on the PCB was not working as we wanted it to. This is going to require a lot of work as we come to demo day, as with finals and other classes while simultaneously working to ensure our final product is up to our standards. This week, I will finish the grind to ensure everything is working properly. This means the final stretch for RFID and microphone as those are the last components that need tweaking and work, as the rest are meeting our design requirements. Looking back, I have learned so much from this project and have dived deep into concepts with flash storage, RFID communication, BLE communication, CELL communication, and PCB design. It was exciting to work on a product that could genuinely help people as well.
Olivia’s Status Report for 4/20
This week was an exciting but very important week for everyone! With one week left for demos, this week was devoted to finishing the PCB, putting as many finalizing touches into the code, both MCU (PCB programming) and front end of the mobile app. This week I finalized the geofence in the MCU code for the cellular’s GPS module. With trial and error I figured out a way for the GPS and CELL to switch properly allowing for use of both ( before there was an issue with switching). I also worked on refining the flash storage of the stored information from SOS contacts to the home geofence area and radius. I also worked on the presentation as well as testing. I conducted the tests for the PCB communication alongside Anika to test the mobile apps communication to PCB. These tests ranged from stress testing durability, range and more, as well as speed of communication testing, and ensuring they fit within our standards for the use case requirements and design requirements.
Team Status Report for 4/6
Current risks are that PCB does not come in time or does not work properly. This would be very unfortunate and hard to combat if it went wrong, to aid in preventing this, we spent countless hours ensuring the PCB design was as best as it could be, checking with professors and TA’s to help ensure everything would work properly and testing on a breadboard.
No changes have been made to system design.
Updated scheduled was changed last week and discussed in team demo/last week reports.
Tests we have run:
Cell:
- Testing in areas with low/high amounts of cellular devices and interference nearby (testing speed of communication, receiving/transmitting data as well as overall time it takes for text to send)
- GPS coords testing [this is still being worked on/tested] ie with geoFence and ensuring quick oscillations of the GPS trigger have a back up to stop sending triggers in situations where they may have forgot to turn the geofence off. And overall testing location accuracy (down to almost +- 10 meters)
BTE:
- Same as cellular but also testing main controlling aspects of the ESP32 with CELL and Mobile app.
- Flash storage and receive times of BTE update of preferences (SOS #’s, geofence location and radius, triggers)
RFID:
- RFID testing is still going on and won’t fully be able to be testing most likely until sodlered onto the PCB. Since we only have one RFID, and it is already pretty janky when it comes to testing (as we have to hold the wires into each pin of the RFID and not move a muscle to ensure it works), we will either have to come up with a better testing setup, or try to get the PCB solder done as soon as possible.
Overall all these tests will be used to see if we still fit our original requirements as stated in the beginning team reports. As we are able to test more in this last week, we will have a much better understanding of what is up to out standard and what is not, and possibly what standards we over or under estimated.
Olivia’s Status report for 4/6
This week I worked on testing and verification as well as getting Geo fence and location tracking with the onboard cellular unit working. This took figuring out how I would be able to take a latitude, longitude and radius and figure out latitude and longitude that was within that radius to create a whole area that was a “safety zone” and depending on if a person wanted the trigger would alert and SOS when they stepped out of the area, it would send an alert to their specified SOS people. Realizing that the GPS unit had multiple tracking abilities, including a update coords or syncing the GPS location when the actual device has moved was great, as this helped so that it would not take a lot of battery when trying to get the coords even when they are stationary. This unfortunately introduced a few bugs that while the GPS was running, it struggled to send texts, but after rigorous debugging and testing, we were able to fix it.
Olivia’s Status Report for 3/30
As we prepared for a demo coming up this week, I worked a lot on the hardware setup and code, as well as deciding what we would be ready to present for our interim demo. I worked on the cellular module and completed the code to make calls as well as send texts. This took several hours of debugging and working with different programs and connections to ensure the ESP 32 could properly send serialized data to the cellular module. I also created an interim demo design to fully present a presentable version of our PCB design. I also worked on the GPS programming of the cell module to ensure we had location proximity trigger and be able to accurately receive location data ( I was able to receive location data but was unsure about accuracy and working on honing that this week as we enter final testing).
Happy Easter!!🐣
Olivia’s Status Report for 3/23
This week we received multiple vital parts of our design from the suppliers, so this week was spent testing and ensuring the PCB design matched our new specifications. Since I tested the RFID, motor, and attempted testing the microphone and cell, as well as after multiple discussions and a meeting with Tamal to figure out specific logistics of the PCB to ensure correctness we had to make several changes. We realized that we bought an analog microphone and that if we wanted to use it, we would either need to create our own digital processor or get a digital microphone. We decided to go forward with a new microphone as that also helped with better compatibility with the ESP and overall design requirements. I also ordered a new cellular device, as after discussing how the solder pad cell chip we currently have would work, we realized a better and cheaper option would be to go with a cellular kit that already has a prepaid cell plan that we could use, as well as great depth documentation and discussion of projects which will help with debugging. It was also exciting as the new cell chip has GPS which minimized our parts and provided us with GPS location without additional modules. As our design finally starts coming together, it is exciting to start putting things together and visualize what our final design will look like.
Team Status Report for 3/16
The most significant risks are with a component delivery time that could jeopardize our project and timeline. For risk management, we have developed a few contingency plans with two suppliers to ensure if Ali Express does not come in we also ordered from Digieky. We will be tight-pressed on time for the final product but know we can get it done and are adjusting and accommodating to these potential delays.
No significant design changes were made this week, except ordering a different supplier’s motor as it has a better CAD file for the PCB design but was almost the same. Several other specification choices but not overall design changes were made.
No updates to the project schedule other than announcing the end of the PCB design section which was delayed from the original first week’s scheduling. By finishing the PCB schematic we are excited to move to the next stage in the schedule.
Olivia’s Status Report for 3/16
This week I helped the team build the PCB design. Focusing on pinout and device specification. I as well as my teammates found several new components, CAD files, and more that we needed to order or use for our PCB. I also worked more on the code, creating more preliminary code based on guides provided by the supplier of our modules to ensure compatibility.
Our progress is on schedule now that the PCB design is done.
Next week, I hope that some of our stuff comes in and we can work with RFID and CELL and tune it, as BT is almost done once the mobile app is finalized.
Team Status Report for 2/24
The most significant risk to our project’s success remains consistent with our previous reports. Additionally, the complexity and depth of our project, with its many moving parts, present a substantial challenge. In order to successfully navigate this it will require a high level of dedication and effort from the team to bring our invention to life.
After thoroughly reviewing our materials, we have implemented some changes to the system’s overall design. We expanded the role of the ESP32, innovatively leveraging its extensive capabilities to serve not only as a Bluetooth connector for our app integration but also as the main MCU unit. Further research into RFID technology informed several specific design alterations, enhancing our method of communication between modules. We have developed multiple contingency plans to address potential challenges and ensure continued progress.
The schedule in the design review slides is still current.
Olivia’s Status Report for 2/24
Helped work on the slides and presentation for Bradley’s big day this past Monday. It was very exciting and hear from people. In the process of working on Bradley’s slides, design changes were implemented. I figured out quickly that the ESP32 could be used as an MCU for most of our materials. I also had the duty of figuring out how to power the whole pendant. This would require an understanding of what devices would be made passive, only awake for short periods, and what would be required to stay on at all times. Knowing this information helped me create an idea of how much power each would need, comparing this with device specifications it was easier to understand how. to predict what the average input would be and how large the battery would it entail.
This week I will begin researching ESP communication beginning in order to start communication between the pendant and the mobile app.
Hoping to ensure a good portion of a parts are ordered as we have finally finalized our design idea and have a much better understanding of how a feasible approach will work.