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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.

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Bradley’s Status Report for 3/16

This week we finalized creating our schematic and ordered some new parts. When coming back from break, not all of the parts had arrived. A crucial part, the UHF RFID reader, had not been ordered. Through ordering it again, I eventually found a new one that was cheaper to use. For working on the schematic, we had to look into the pinouts of each of the parts and how decide how everything will be connected on the PCB ultimately. We also had to keep two PCB designs in mind, one for UHF and HF RFID, in case UHF does not work out. As somebody who has not taken a class pertaining to PCBs or used them, I learned a lot about them this week. We also figured out a new way to use the ring. We realized RFID is blocked by metals, so we pivoted to using a plastic ring and using metal to block the frequency being transmitted to the pendant, signaling that the user wants to initiate emergency protocol. Unfortunately, we are behind schedule, and most of our parts have not arrived yet. So, the best use of my time will be researching how everything will be connected so assembly will be quick once the parts do arrive.

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Anika’s Status Report for 3/16

This week I spent a lot of time working on the PCB schematic. We were a little behind in our timeline, so we met up multiple times this week to get all of our components sorted out and figure out exactly if our pieces were compatible with each other, and how what pins they’ll connect to on each respective component. I have been working on the PCB schematic using Fusion 360. When scanning the products in our parts list. A lot of them did not have part files included, so I have spent time creating part files myself so we can include them in our schematic and also in later to be put on the PCB itself.

Now that the PCB schematic will be finished. i plan to finish designing the PCB and have it ready to ship by the end of next week.

 

I have attached a pic of our schematic below:

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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.

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Team Status Report for 3/9

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. One of the biggest issues holding us back thus far was not having all our parts figured out. While creating the design report we were able to finalize our parts list and get them ordered. We are still in budget with these changes. Now with this done, we can start to work on our PCB design to get that finished and ordered as well while we work on the parts individually in the meantime.

After thoroughly reviewing our materials, we have implemented some changes to the system’s overall design. The block diagram was modified after feedback from the design review in order to make our flow more understandable and have a clear logical flow on how different parts of the product come into play with each other.

Liv was also able to write the bluetooth code for communication between the ESP32 and mobile app which works for communication in both direction. We have also created a github to consolidate all our work into one location.  Our next topic we need to discuss as a team is how data gets serialized between the phone and pendant (in both directions)

The schedule in the design report is still current.

A was written by Anika, Part B by Olivia, and part C by Bradley

Part A: In regards to global factors our product is meant to be worn by any one anywhere. Outside of the Pittsburgh area what we do need to do is make sure that our product/code does not violate any sort of privacy laws anywhere else. the device is also intended to be user friendly. While there may be many moving parts we hope to mitigate this by have a very clear and concise tutorial/page on how to get started with the device. We also as we finalize tour design will hope to get feedback on our instructions as to make it as clear as possible.

Part B: In regard to cultural factors, these have not changed very much. If going into real product stages of this project and we were to develop a mass-produced item, we would need to review different religious, cultural and overall style factors to ensure that our pendant and ring could be worn by everyone. To ensure all races, genders, religions and more not only want to but are able to wear our devices, we must take into concern many factors, with current fashion ideals as well as rules with clothing due to peoples’s personal beliefs all while also maintaining discretion. While not in the process yet, this will have huge considerations during final outer design is underway.

Part C: Our device is inherently environmentally friendly, with the parts being recyclable. Also, our device uses a rechargeable battery instead of a non rechargeable, reducing waste. Ideally In terms of living organisms, our device is not related to them, as it is a personal safety device.  To make our device even more environmentally friendly, we could use recycled metals for the jewelry pieces.

 

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Bradley’s Status Report for 3/9

This week, we worked on the design report. Before this, we needed to finalize our design and select the parts. I picked most of the parts, put them on a spreadsheet, and made the orders. I had to consider the size of a feasible battery we could use, and then pick the correct voltages of the remaining parts so they could all be powered by said battery. We ran into a problem involving ordering UHF RFID receivers, as they are very expensive on domestic websites such as digikey. We ordered a relatively cheap one on AliExpress, but our TA has told us to not rely on that website. Tamal said we could use a smaller frequency RFID as proof of concept. As a result, we ended up ordering both types of RFID recievers, antennas, and tags.  After that, I also helped write the design report due this week. Since we were able to finalize our design, as well as get our orders in, I think we are on schedule. This week I also researched how all of our parts will be integrated together, to be ready for assembling when the parts do arrive.

 

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Anika’s Status Report for 3/9

The week before spring break I spent a lot of time working on our Design Report and in doing so now have a better understanding of how to articulate our project and our goals to our audience as well as explain certain decisions we made throughout our design process. I also spent a lot of time based on feedback from the design review creating a concise block diagram to very clearly visually explain how each sub-component of the overall product works together and the flow of alerting SOS. Progress on the companion app remains the same as I am still looking into how to save information (from our trigger settings) and pass it back through pages for the companion app so we can use that information and pass it to our actual jewelry device, as well as researching packages for acquiring GPS location for setting the location radius triggers. Through working on the design report we have also have a more complete list of parts so I am working on finding their part files/a way for me to put those parts into our pcb design.

In the next week I hope to have information on how to achieve the 2 companion app features and make progress on our pcb design.

 

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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.

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Bradley’s Status Report 2/24

This week I worked on my presentation for the design review. I reviewed and changes slides and practiced presenting. For working on the project itself, I picked out which database we should use as well as changed our protocol with how false alarm signals are being sent through our system. I think our progress is on schedule so far, and I hope it will continue to be that way. I hope by the end of next week the parts will be ordered, and we can start constructing our product and see how viable our initial plan really is.

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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.