Emma’s Status Report 4/19/25
This week, I spent time integrating and testing our system. On Monday, I helped Abie put together our pH sensor, but it ended up not working, so we ordered a temperature sensor instead that would be easier to integrate into our system, and give us accurate temperature readings. Temperature is a better statistic in determining the health of the reef system, so we figured swapping it for pH would be okay. Abie and I also met with the aquatics director to get confirmation that we can test in the pool and use the pool for our demo on 5/1. I coordinated times with a lifeguard for us to test the system.
I also worked on building the underwater portion of the boat. I got a plastic water bottle and I cut a slit in it for the camera and cable to go through, and got weights from TechSpark to make it sink. However, it failed the waterproofness test because we originally only sealed the cable hole with electrical tape. I had taken the camera out to test if it was waterproof, but I left the cable inside, and it unfortunately got wet. The next day, Abie and I tested the system in the pool to get images, and the cable worked for one take, and then broke due to the water exposure. This was a setback because we have to build a new waterproof cable. But we realized that the waterproofing we did on the cable probably wouldn’t have been sufficient anyways, so we met and redesigned the way we will waterproof the cable. This will include waterproof tape and liquid silicone sealant that we ordered. We will be waterproofing the cable on Monday or Tuesday this week.
In terms of the camera, I realized that the system was not shutting down properly and showing errors. I was able to change the structure of the code slightly so that the Pi receives a “stop” signal when the user presses the “x” key, and the server and camera shut down correctly.
I decided that making the underwater part of the boat out of a plastic bottle was not going to be sophisticated enough and reliable as a self designed part. I decided to write out a design for a new box to hold the camera in and decided we could use clear acrylic. I helped waterproof the box with Maddie. The next day, Abie and I went to the pool with our new system and we were able to successfully collect 8 different scans of pool toys on the bottom of the pool.
On Friday, I helped Maddie integrate the stepper motor with the Arduino cloud. This has been giving us an unexpected amount of bugs, but we were able to adjust the delays in the code so that the stepper motor finally is being controlled by the cloud! I also set up the temperature sensor with the cloud so now we have all of our components together on one Arduino on the cloud!
Today I have been working on putting together the slides for our final presentation. I will be presenting Monday or Wednesday. Next week, my goal is to help finish building the boat and test the whole boat in the water. We will need to waterproof the top of the boat, the cable, and make the boat stay afloat and the underwater part sink. These things will be a challenge but I think we will have enough time to solidify our design by the final demonstration. I do not see any major issues ahead and I am excited to have the whole thing coming together.
Underwater photo: Can see a white paper towel next to the fin, clear colors. Somewhat blurry because the camera is set to focus on objects closer than this since the camera was not submerged yet.
