Professor Sullivan and Gordan (TA) noted that our MVP lacked some details. Hence, my first priority was to iron out our MVP. I did this early in the week after meeting with my group, noting the following details in a Google Doc:
Input:
- Sequence of notes played
- Time shift (delay) specified by knob
- Amplitude Modulation specified by knob
- Specify beat – 1, 2, 3, 4
Output:
- Sequence of notes delayed by specified time shift + indefinite amplitude modulation
- Notes will be played based on beat specified
Stretch Goals
- Pitch Shifting – user specifies number of octaves
- Tap Tempo – specify delay based on how user taps guitar pedal
- LED Buttons
This provided some clarity for the basic and additional functionality of our pedal that will be crucial when answering questions about the design next week. In addition, Nick and I began the brainstorming process for additional hardware functions. Being hardware-focused individuals we want to ensure that our contributions are meaningful and show in the functions of our pedal. We plan to have a list by coming Monday to present to Professor Sullivan during our meeting. The middle of the week involved drawing the diagram for our design, making notes of interface functionality, and specifying a clear user interface to promote maximum usability. The hand-drawn diagram below that I created from our group meeting early in the week will be used next week when explaining design details. I also drew the graph (originally created by Josie) in a clear and easy-to-understand manner to provide a presentable visual for next week’s presentation.
The late parts of this week were dedicated to ironing out further design details, particularly with our PCB. I contributed to our design review presentation that I will be presenting next week.
My progress seems to be on schedule at this point. It was noted that getting our pcb back in a timely manner is not a guarantee. My hope is that our slack provides me ample time to get the board back. However, we will be prototyping using a breadboard and/or a PCB dev board, which will serve as our backup. While this is not ideal as the circuitry will go inside our pedal that is moving up and down when pressed, it will ensure that we can deliver our MVP in the case that we cannot rely in a timely fabrication of our board.
In the next week, I would like to get a jump on the PCB design and finalize the schematic and specific use of the board by next week so that I can get the board to tapeout in a timely manner. I would also like to begin prototyping our board using the daisy seed to get a feel of how our circuitry will look. This will involve further study of the pinout of the daisy seed and relating that to the various design details that we will be finalizing prior to our presentation next week.