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Ashira’s Status Report for 3/29/25

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 mainly focused on finalizing some parts of the enclosure; namely, finishing the manufacturing/assembly of the front panel window, as well as getting the springs we’ll be using to dispense the snacks from the machine to attach to the springs. This mainly consisted of me working in CAD again to design these mounts, laser cut everything, and attach them to the springs and motors. Right now, rotational movement from the motors is not being translated well to the springs. There’s some jitter that occurs when the springs begin to turn, which I’m assuming is a result of not having the mounts coupled tightly enough to the motor shaft, something I plan on fixing later on. I also assisted in attempting to debug the speakers with David and Anna, since the initial tutorial we referenced to set the speaker up ended up not working for us. I tried to look at other websites and blogs for possible fixes, but unfortunately none of them ended up helping us get the components working. 

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule? 

My progress is on schedule with our original Gantt chart we made.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

This upcoming week, my focus will probably be on integrating all the parts into the gui again, and possibly further finalizing code. I’ll also put some more effort into trying to debug the speakers again and potentially also help bring up the new PIR sensor we plan on replacing our ultrasonic sensor with. 

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David’s status report for 3/29/25

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).

Personally, I didn’t accomplish anything really significant, since I spent my entire week debugging components without much success. For the first half of the week, I spent time working with Anna on debugging the speaker and trying to get sound output. I tried soldering wires to the speaker module and connecting them to the raspberry pi. I also installed the libraries and tried making changes to the config files but that didn’t work either. Another thing that I worked on in the second half of the week is trying to get all 6 motors set up along with their motor drivers. The circuit board is set up but the motors need to be debugged. Anna and Ashira had fixed the motor code and schematic for 2 motors, but since we added 4 more motors, I haven’t figured out the issue with unstable and unpredictable movements. 

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule? 

I’d say my progress is still on schedule but I really need to try and figure out the speaker issue and the 6 motor integration issues this week. 

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

For this next week, I will try to get all 6 motors moving the way they should when the program is running. Ashira had some suggestions about the currents going through the motors and those adjustments, so that is like food for thought for me. Hopefully, making those measurements will give me some better idea about what is going wrong at the moment. 

 

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Team Status Report for 3/29/25

What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project? How are these risks being managed? What contingency plans are ready? 

One of the most significant risks we’re facing is getting the speakers to work, as we’ve encountered persistent issues despite extensive troubleshooting. Additionally, while we’ve started setting up the circuitry for the six motors, initial testing with two motors did not perform as expected, indicating potential challenges ahead. Another concern, as mentioned in Anna’s report, is the ultrasonic sensor’s susceptibility to inaccurate measurements due to the sensitivity of the sensor. We plan to schedule dedicated work sessions where each team member focuses on a specific task while collaborating as needed and discussing the next steps such as any potential design changes moving forward.

Were any changes made to the existing design of the system (requirements, block diagram, system spec, etc)? Why was this change necessary, what costs does the change incur, and how will these costs be mitigated going forward? 

At this point, no notable changes were made in the design of the system.

Provide an updated schedule if changes have occurred. This is also the place to put some photos of your progress or to brag about a component you got working.

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Anna’s Status Report for 3/29/25

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 focused on getting the peripherals working, specifically understanding how it works more in depth and setting up testing code for the ultrasonic sensor. While testing it, I realized potential issues that could arise. Our project’s primary goal is not to proctor the user but rather to encourage discipline by detecting their presence nearby to continue a timed study session. However, the ultrasonic sensor has some limitations due to how it operates—it sends a trigger signal and relies on the echo signal reflecting back to determine distance. This method is highly susceptible to interference, as various obstacles can cause inaccurate readings.

Initially, we referenced a previous project that used the same sensor for a similar purpose. However, after working with it firsthand, I discussed with the team the possibility of pairing it with a passive infrared (PIR) sensor, which detects heat. This combination could improve reliability, ensuring more accurate presence detection. Despite its challenges, the ultrasonic sensor still holds value in our setup, and I am continuing to refine its integration. Besides this observation, I was able to set up the code for the sensor to detect within our 1 meter threshold range and I also attempted to integrate it into our main code so that the timer paused when the distance detected was greater than the threshold.

I also dedicated many hours to assisting David with debugging the speakers. Despite extensive research and multiple attempts at reconfiguring both hardware and software, we have yet to produce any sound. Troubleshooting this component has been time-intensive, but we are actively working on finding a solution.

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be
taken to catch up to the project schedule?

Due to the time spent troubleshooting the speakers, I wasn’t able to dedicate as much time as I had planned to integrating the sensor with the GUI. As a result, I’m slightly behind my intended progress. To get back on track, I will prioritize integrating the sensor next week before revisiting the speaker issues if needed.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

I hope to integrate the ultrasonic sensor to the code and test its functionality so as to see how I can further refine its accuracy.

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Team Status Report for 3/22/25

What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project? How are these risks being managed? What contingency plans are ready? 

The most significant risk at this point would probably be in bringing up the rest of the peripherals and integrating it with the rest of the system. It took us some time to debug the motors and LED strip, as well as integrate that code with the UI, so we anticipate having similar challenges with the speaker and proximity sensor. However, since the GUI and enclosure design of our project is pretty much finished, we will have much more of a combined focus on getting the peripherals to work this week than we did in previous weeks in an attempt to offload the possibility of having to debug in later weeks. We will also need to time ourselves to make sure that we have enough time to test our system as well.

Were any changes made to the existing design of the system (requirements, block diagram, system spec, etc)? Why was this change necessary, what costs does the change incur, and how will these costs be mitigated going forward? 

No notable changes were made in the design of the system.

Provide an updated schedule if changes have occurred. This is also the place to put some photos of your progress or to brag about a component you got working.

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Ashira’s Status Report for 3/22/25

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 focused largely on getting the peripheral components to work + integration between parts. More specifically, I worked on helping David debug the motor driver circuit + code so that we could control the motors with the RPi. This consisted of looking through tutorials, as well as other existing projects which had also incorporated the same components we were using to try and see what the problem in our circuit could be. I also spent lots of time measuring voltages and currents across the circuit to make sure they were what we expected them to be.  In the end, the problem seemed to end up being incorrect motor driver step settings and also not having the GPIO output step pins oscillate between high and low at a high enough frequency. I was  able to extend this control to 2 motors, but since we ended up burning out some of our motor drivers in the debugging process, we’ll have to wait until our new motor drivers come in before attempting to integrate all 6 motors together. I also helped out Anna with integration between the LED and GUI – more specifically, figuring out how to configure the python environment we made for our LED strip functionality to work with the GUI libraries we were using. Since neither of us had super extensive experience in using python environments, we relied on forums to help us debug. In the end, we were able to begin integrating our existing motor and LED control code with our UI. 

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule? 

My progress is on schedule with our original Gantt chart we made.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

This upcoming week, my focus will probably be on helping to get the rest of the peripherals (sensors + speakers) up and running. I will also try to clean up some of the motor control code + extend the functionality to 6 motors so that when the new motor drivers come in, integrating those will be a lot easier.  I also need to laser cut the clear window on our front panel and get that attached, although I don’t anticipate it taking a long time. I was also planning on laser cutting some motor attachments to make it easier to connect the springs to the actual motor. 

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Anna’s Status Report for 3/22/25

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 focused on helping the team with motor control. I also worked on integrating LEDs into our design. Initially, this was challenging due to outdated information on certain forums. Through troubleshooting, I discovered that the RPi OS did not support externally managed packages, which required me to transition all dependencies and code to a virtual environment to install the necessary packages for the LEDs. I also learned that the LEDs should be controlled using SPI dev tools rather than PWM for the RPi. Once I got them working, I incorporated the code into our GUI. However, I ran into issues with PyQt modules conflicting in the virtual environment. With Ashira’s help, I was able to debug this issue and integrate the LEDs so that they are triggered by the UI. Beyond the LED integration, I also worked on adding a sensor to our circuit and tested its functionality. Lastly, I helped Ashira integrate a single motor into our code, ensuring that it rotates only when expected, during the snack dispensing process. This needs a little more tweaking though.

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 in progress.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

I hope to fine tune the sensor to detect within a specific threshold and integrate it into the code as seamlessly as possible. Additionally, I hope to assist the team in attaching the springs to the stepper motors and assembling one fully functional dispensing slot for the demo.

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David’s status report for 3/22/25

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).

On Monday, I worked with my team on trying to debug the motor issue that remained from last week. While I personally wasn’t able to figure out what was wrong with the schematic and code, my teammates were able to, which was awesome. They were able to get the motors to spin in a more clean motion as well.  Additionally, I’ve been spending time this week getting the schematic for the speaker to set up, installing needed scripts, and trying to run them to produce sound. Currently, no sound comes out of the speaker which leads me to believe that the wiring is wrong since there is also no indication of the speaker module turning on. I’m trying to fix that part. 

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule?

I believe my schedule is in progress, but that’s mainly because of the amount of help I am getting from my teammates, who are the best.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

I hope to figure out the issue with the speakers and get those to output sound depending on what is happening in the system. Also, I think our team is trying to get the motors attached to the vending machine structure so I hope to assist with that. 

 

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Ashira’s Status Report for 3/15/25

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 mainly focused on manufacturing and assembly of the vending machine enclosure, as well as finishing up the ethics assignment. Because our schedule for manufacturing was pushed back by a week into our initially planned assembly time, we had to redistribute some of our efforts to make sure that both jobs were finished by the end of the week, which we did successfully. With the help of David and Anna, we were able to laser cut all the pieces of the enclosure and assemble almost everything as well (shown below), with the exception of the dispenser springs and front panel, which we’ll install later on, when development for all the peripherals are finished and components can be mounted. I also spent some time helping David with debugging his schematic and code to troubleshoot the motor control. Other than that, I also spent some time this week working on the ethics assignment that was due on Wednesday.

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule? 

My progress was behind coming into the week due to delays in manufacturing, but I was able to catch up and finish almost all the manufacturing an assembly this week.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

Since the mechanical end of the project is basically complete, this next week, my main focus will be in helping out with peripheral control, namely, getting the motors to work as needed, as well as bringing up speaker, LED, and sensor functionality. It might also be valuable to make an attempt at integration with the GUI as well, but the priority will mainly be implementing the basic functionality first.

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Team Status Report for 3/15/25

What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project? How are these risks being managed? What contingency plans are ready? 

The most significant risk at this stage is ensuring the proper functionality of the vending machine, particularly the motor controls. Debugging has been more time-consuming than anticipated, and we still need to configure 6 motors. To address this, the team has met to analyze probable causes, testing 1 motor at a time to identify and resolve any problems before scaling up.

Were any changes made to the existing design of the system (requirements, block diagram, system spec, etc)? Why was this change necessary, what costs does the change incur, and how will these costs be mitigated going forward? 

Nothing was changed in our design. On another note, however, based on our meeting, we recognized areas in which our requirements can be further clarified, such as further justification for the vending machine size, which is as follows: internal storage capacity determines its external dimensions, snack vending machines typically range from 68-72″ H x 29-41″ W x 30-34″ D, smaller machine would require more frequent restocking, designed to accommodate both study materials and the vending machine on a desktop while minimizing clutter.

Provide an updated schedule if changes have occurred. This is also the place to put some photos of your progress or to brag about a component you got working.