What did you personally accomplish this week on the project? Give files or photos that demonstrate your progress. Prove to the reader that you put sufficient effort into the project over the course of the week (12+ hours).
- This week, I worked on adapting the current code for the embedded controller by integrating another UART line for the next 8 grid positions. Initially I changed the UART controller class to be able to handle the internal switching of the position numbers (8-15) and (0-7) but it wasn’t able to work with the embedded controller. I ended up just creating two instances of the UART controller class and was able to transmit to all 16 positions using this new code design.
- I also worked on the circuitry for the test bed to expand it to 16 blocks. I used a new breadboard and added two multiplexers, expanded the I2C lines and added two button circuit (with GPIO pins). This circuit is connected to the original circuit.
- With the new circuitry for testing, I tested the code for the 16 blocks full game and it worked! However, the wire connections were not very reliable so we are working on building the real grid now using plywood.
- Also, I worked on soldering all the connections that I designed on the breadboard onto an actual perf board for more secure connection and easier testing moving forward. We were deciding between options like using copper board or creating a PCB but we decided that the wait time for those options would be too long. Using a perf board is more secure that a breadboard as the wires would not be coming off as easily while allowing us to have a fast and easy way to create it.
Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule?
- My schedule is on track. I am currently working with the rest of my team to get the final version of the test bed working. In the meantime, we are also making plans for the testing and verification stage of our project.
What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?
- Next week, I hope to work on testing to make sure everything is working properly. I have done some preliminary testing to make sure that the sub-components of the embedded side of things are working, but I plan to do more thorough testing for the latency of each step of the game (uploading, submission etc), tuning the parameters to find the balance between accuracy and efficiency.
Now that you have some portions of your project built, and entering into the verification and validation phase of your project, provide a comprehensive update on what tests you have run or are planning to run. In particular, how will you analyze the anticipated measured results to verify your contribution to the project meets the engineering design requirements or the use case requirements? Verification is usually related to your own subsystem and is likely to be discussed in your individual reports.
I worked on the embedded components of the project. To verify the functionality, I will first test all the connections between the pins/header pins I soldered to ensure there is the proper required connection and the power and ground are not shorted. Following that, I will run a basic testing program to make sure that data transmission between the blocks and the grids are working as expected for each phase (upload words, querying words and displaying correctness). This ensures that the new perf board that I soldered for the two sets of 8 rows works as the breadboard version did. I have already done the basic testing but will work on the end to end testing next week.
Next, I will run a latency test by measuring the time taken from when the upload_words function is called, until all the blocks have completed the uploading of the words (taking into account the 3-try repeat for each block). I will adjust the delay time between subsequent retries from the current implemention of 0.5 seconds to as low as possible until the accuracy is no longer 100% to find the trade-off between accuracy and efficiency. I will also measure the latency for the submission process. I will take the time starting from the detection of a button press (using the callback function) till the display_category function is called and all the colors of the blocks in one row are updated. This will be the submission latency. I will also utilize a similar adjustment process to find a relationship between accuracy and efficiency trade-off.
I will also work on testing the battery life duration which we have done informally previously. We kept using the blocks regularly without charging them and found that they were able to last for about a week before they ran out of charge. This met our requirement of >15 minutes which is the duration required for one game of Connections.