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.
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.
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.
Olivia’s Status Report for 3/9
This week was really exciting because a lot of the beginning stages of the code began.
This last week, including the spring break was devoted working on the pendant communication code with that I started working on an ESP 32 and testing the Bluetooth in different forms of communication that would be needed by the project. Using sample code to see how that would work before creating a fully flushed out program, I tested locally with the Bluetooth communication program for the device. After understanding the BT communication and ensuring it was actually workin, I begin working on the flash storage of the contacts and SOS information that would need to be stored on the device testing and ensuring the Bluetooth worked first and then moving onto flash and different sections. I am piece by piece assuring that they will work and then testing them as a whole. The next step will be the cell chip pinout and layout as well as the actual cell chip code.
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.
Olivia’s Status Report for 2/17
This week was dedicated to working on our design implementation and gathering resources to figure out what, how much, and where we will buy materials for our project. This week I have put in 15+ hours in different aspects. This included extensive research into parts, meetings with professors to get a better understanding of our options with designs (which after one meeting led to hours of changes to parts of our implementation and different questions/concerns that arose with new methods/ideas for the project), as well as continuously meeting with the rest of my team to ensure we are all up-to-date and informed on any changes the others have made. While according to our original plan, we are a bit behind schedule, we updated this schedule as we did not realize the real-time timing that it would take to work on several aspects of the project. This truly has nothing to do with being behind schedule, but rather not properly allocating enough time for some work ( figuring out exact specifications for what our design would need) versus allocating more than the needed amount for other work (buying components, setting up design presentation slides and document). This week I hope to deliver the finalized design description for round 1 of our design so that orders for materials can be made by the end of the week. With this in mind, I am on the right track, as today (2/17) I spent +5 hours researching different parts and materials that could work well and have narrowed down the design to 1-3 different options per material/design goal. As well as set up a meeting with Professor Bain to ask his opinion on RFID communication (which was tremendously helpful!), which led to a completely new perspective on how we could implement passive/non-passive RFID communication between the ring and pendant.
Olivia’s Status Report for 2/10
This week was dedicated to the presentation of our proposals. I had the opportunity to represent our team and share our ideas. To prepare, we collaboratively worked on the slide deck and ensured that all crucial points of our proposal were effectively communicated. Following our presentation, we initiated discussions on material allocation, focusing on the specifics of what to purchase, the quantities needed, and the sourcing locations for our project materials. We are poised to start placing orders and assembling the necessary components. This includes procuring additional items that are deemed fragile, given our budget allows for it. We are also considering the need for multiple iterations of the rings/pendants, estimating the required number of sets that can be accommodated within our budget. Furthermore, we are paying special attention to more expensive items, ensuring they are essential and meet our project requirements. As the lead for finalizing purchases, I am tasked with reviewing each item and consulting with our TA and team members to develop a robust plan. This plan will account for any external factors that could influence our project’s success.