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Team Status Report for 4/19/25

The most significant risk for our project at this point is making sure the final design of the board is operational and clean, particularly with the silicone encasing on top. In addition, we need to get the NFC scanning through the phone app working. If this fails to work, we have the fallback of the NFC scanners on the physical pad itself instead.

We made a slight change of design in our final pad product. Instead of soldering on a thin board, we are unscrewing and using breadboards to construct our pad. This is because we needed the connected ground and power rails or there would not have been enough space on the board for all our components.

No changes to the schedule.

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Sarah’s Status Report for 4/19/25

This week, I continued the integration of the hardware LED logic into our backend. I also worked on refining our front end and adding additional features, such as a shopping list for the user and expired items page to detect often expired categories of food.

I also worked on trying to integrate the built-in phone NFC scanner feature into our app as we got approved for the apple developer account. The code and interface is set up but the functionality is not fully operational.

We are currently on schedule.

In the next week, I hope to finish up the integration of the NFC phone scanner and finish the full logic for the entirely built pad. I also hope to begin working on our final video and poster.

As I have designed and implemented the software portion of our project, I have learned a lot about building an app from the ground up. I have also learned a lot about the integration of hardware and software, and how communication protocols work to communicate between them. My main source of learning was many YouTube videos to learn the basics, especially when I needed to learn how to set up environments and dependencies for our specific app. Once I learned the basics, reading documentation on specific frameworks also helped me a lot.

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Gina’s Status Report 04/12

I successfully completed the wiring and soldering of the LED subsystem. Initially, we attempted to solder four separate 4-LED strips (16 total) into a square formation to fit the base of our design. However, we encountered a major roadblock: current flow inconsistencies due to segmenting the strips. To resolve this, we opted not to cut the LED strips. Instead, we used a continuous 16-LED strip and geometrically folded it into a square pattern to maintain uniform current flow and simplify the wiring layout. This new configuration has been tested using our power booster and logic level shifter, which step the Arduino’s 3.3V output up to 5V for the LED signal and power. All 16 LEDs now light up consistently with no drop in brightness, verifying the effectiveness of our revised wiring approach. The 4 squares of LEDs will now take up 4 pins in total on our main ESP32 board.

I’ve completed testing the power circuit stability. Using a multimeter, I confirmed that the voltage booster consistently outputs ~5V under full LED load, and the logic level shifter correctly translates the Arduino’s 3.3V signal to 5V for LED data input. The system maintained stable performance with no flickering or voltage drops.

I still need to complete testing for the light sensor, which is scheduled for next week. This will involve simulating fridge door open and close states using a flashlight to verify that the sensor correctly detects changes in ambient light and triggers power-off behavior when lux levels drop below the threshold.

To verify pressure sensor accuracy, we will place 10 items of varying weights (≥50g) on the GlowFresh pad, testing sensor response with and without the silicone mat interface. I’ll confirm that placement and removal are consistently detected, aiming for a 98% success rate with minimal false positives. We’ll also evaluate sensor sensitivity and response when two items are stacked, ensuring that changes in total force are correctly registered.

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Team Status Report for 4/12/25

There are no significant risks that would prevent our project from working as we have much of the main functionality implemented and are just working on finishing up the LED integration from the software to hardware.

No changes were made to the existing design of the system but our request for reimbursement for an apple developer account was approved, allowing us to integrate bluetooth functionality into our project.

This week, our progress focused a lot on designing the circuitry for our final board and how everything will be soldered together. In addition, the final large component of our project, the LED light integration, started and we have the code for the software and hardware set up. We just need to solder all the LED strips on the separate zones and decide which pins on the microcontroller will be used for them.

For validation testing, we focused on testing general user flow by performing end to end use case scenarios. We added an item by scanning an NFC tag and confirmed that it was displayed on the UI within 3 seconds with the correct information. We also simulated an item expiring soon and verified that the notification and color change occurred within 4 seconds. Finally, when we removed an item or moved it to a different zone on the pad, we verified that the item was no longer displayed and the color was adjusted accordingly.

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Sarah’s Status Report for 4/12/25

This week, I worked a lot on the integration of the physical LED lights into our software. After my teammates soldered the test LED strip to the circuit, I worked on the backend API code that would communicate with the ESP32 to ensure that logically, the correct color would be displayed.

I was able to integrate the correct functionality for ZONE01, and look to extend the functionality logic to all 4 zones.

We are currently on progress as the core software functions of our project have been mostly finished and I am attempting to add on additional features.

In the next week, I hope to extend the logic of LED color display to all 4 zones and test that it works. I will have to adjust the ESP32 code to change the MQTT subscription topics, along with a few logic details. I also hope to begin the integration of the temperature and humidity sensors.

While testing the software subsystem of our project, I verified that the operation works as expected. For example, the core functionality of adding a product works. The user can scan an NFC tag and customize the name and expiration date of it, which will then update the database accurately. In addition, the expiration decay of the item is accurately reflected in the colors on the user interface and LED lights.

In regards to latency, all updates and features fit the time frame in our design reports to make the user flow as seamless as possible.

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Jess’s Status Report for 3/29/25

This week, I made progress in integrating our hardware components. I breadboarded all components and tested the functionality of multiple NFC scanners using SPI’s select line. I also verified that multiple pressure sensors work as expected by ORing their outputs to a single GPIO pin. Additionally, I reached out to various professors and the ECE department regarding an Apple Developer account to support our iOS development needs. Lastly, I began floorplanning our final PCB design.

Although I would like to move faster, we are still on track.

Looking ahead, I plan to finalize the design and begin soldering all components to move toward a more permanent hardware setup.

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Team Status Report for 3/29/25

This week, we made significant progress on our electronics by starting to integrate our LED setup and ESP32 with the rest of the circuit, bringing our MVP together. With the core system assembled, our upcoming Sunday meeting will finalize testing ahead of our demos on Monday and Wednesday.

So far, we are on progress. With the possibility of getting an Apple Developer license, we may have to discuss how this would affect our schedule and see how feasible it would be to integrate MVP features on the Apple app.

After next week’s demos, we will shift our focus to further backend-frontend integration with our app and hardware, pairing of the pad, followed by testing silicon fabrication (weight effects on sensors + calibration) for our product casing.

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Gina’s Status Report for 3/29/25

This week, I soldered the LEDs into square shapes, with one pad containing 16 LEDs and completed the LED code on a separate ESP32, ensuring it produces the desired color outputs reliably and gradients effects. This weekend, I began integrating the ESP32 with the rest of the circuit; early tests indicate that the system is communicating properly and that the LEDs are responding as expected.

On Sunday, we plan to meet to finalize our testing before our demos on Monday and Wednesday, and we will also be discussing the Apple Developer license for our app and seeing how this may change our timeline. Furthermore, I plan on laser-cutting squares of thin acrylic and order test silicon sheets to wrap our project around our electronics before molding step.

Overall, this progress marks a key step toward a fully integrated system as we move closer to our critical demo deadlines.

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Sarah’s Status Report for 3/29/25

This week I worked a lot more on the user flow of our project and the design of how we wanted to have users add an item and place them on the mat. I integrated having multiple scanners on the hardware into the backend so that any of them can be used to scan an NFC tag. I also adjusted the frontend of our code so that instead of having different ‘pads’, there are different ‘zones’ on a singular pad. I also implemented a notifications page and am working on real-time notifications.

Our progress is currently on schedule and I look to flesh out the front end and have pad sensor processing integration be more clear.

In the next week, I hope to have a successful demo and learn what can be improved about our project. I also want to implement real time notifications for when an item expires.

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Jess’s Status Report for 3/22/25

This week, I focused on refining our NFC scanner setup by switching from I2C to SPI, which better supports multiple scanners on one pad and eliminates the need to boost the input logic to 5V. I soldered additional NFC scanners and worked on connecting multiple scanners to a single ESP32. Additionally, I helped Sarah set up all the hardware components so she could integrate them with the backend of our app.

While progress was made, ensuring all scanners work seamlessly with one ESP32 remains a challenge. Connecting multiple scanners introduced new debugging considerations, which I will continue to address. Despite this challenge, we are still on track with our goals.

Looking ahead, I plan to finalize the scanner setup so all units function reliably with one ESP32. I will also focus on planning a more streamlined circuit design and soldering it onto our flat breadboard. Additionally, I aim to conduct initial testing to identify and resolve any issues early in the development process. Ensuring stability across all hardware components will be key as we move forward.