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Steven’s Status Report for 4/24

This week I worked on testing and validating our system in preparation for our final deliverables. I collected data on the hologram’s RPM, FPS, and latency and compared these values with our proposal goals to identify if we met the targets we set for ourself/if we needed to. I did this by recording videos of our hologram at 30 fps, I analyzed each frame and calculated the amount of time it took for user input to be registered on the screen. Once I had collected the necessary data, I began compiling and analyzing the data for our final presentation. I created the final presentation with andrew and kendric, and practiced the presentation extensively before our final presentation on Monday.

I dont believe we have any significant roadblocks in our way between now and our final demo. We are now just working on polishing our project. The biggest task we have left is to complete our final deliverables like our poster, video, and final paper before our demo.

We haven’t made any changes to our schedule and are on track to finish on time.

 

 

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Team Status Report for 4/18

No significant risks jeopardize the completion of our project. The only big risk would be if one of our parts decided to spontaneously combust during testing, which is why we’ve decided to use our remaining budget on buying backup parts in case anything was to happen.

We haven’t made any significant design changes, and our project is proceeding smoothly. We are on track to present at demo day.

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Steven’s Status Report 4/18

This week I worked primarily on getting the final project ready for final documentation. In the next couple of days, we have many deadlines coming up, so I’ve been preparing the final deliverables. I’ve begun brainstorming video ideas, started trying out different poster layouts, and started working on the final presentation slides.

We don’t have any significant setbacks this week. Since our interim demo, things have been going smoothly for the most part. We’ve had some difficulties here and there getting the belt to tension, so we reprinted some parts and readjusted the clamp which has so far solved the slipping issue.

We are currently on schedule and are on pace to complete the project by our final demo.

One of the skills I learned while working on this project is how to read schematics and pcb boards. While working on the project, a couple weeks back, we had an issue with reading from our hall-effect sensor on the adafruit hub adapter. In order to find the root cause, I needed to review the schematics for the adafruit hub adapter and look at the data sheets for each of the components before finally diagnosing that the hub adapter only allowed for one-way communication of data from the pi to the panels, and not from the panels back to the pi. Without learning to read the schematics and datasheets of various components, I’m not sure we would have figured out this bug.

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Team Status Report 4/4

We did not face any significant challenges this week. We successfully pulled off the interim demo and are now preparing for our final demo.

No significant schedule or design changes to our project at this time. Our LED panels have finally arrived and we’re now ironing out how to program the displays.

For full system validation, we’ve been testing while integrating to make sure everything would work well. For example, for power draw we have measured components individually and ensured that they pull around the amount we estimate. Once we have a more final product, we will also take the time to measure framerate and latency to ensure they are within reasonable bounds. We will also make some qualitative observations to see which aspects we will focus on improving.

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Steven’s Status Report 4/4

This week marked our interim demo, where we completed our first full system integration. Overall, the demo was quite successful, and we received largely positive feedback from both our instructors and TAs. While the LED display has not yet achieved 3D image rendering and we are not operating at our target RPM, we were still able to present a strong proof of concept. I was honestly surprised by how much we were able to accomplish in time. Andrew and Kendric both put in significant effort to make the interim demo a success.

One major challenge I overcame prior to the demo was getting the hall-effect sensor to work with the Adafruit HUB adapter. Because the adapter occupies all of the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins, we needed to route the hall-effect sensor through the HUB itself. Although the adapter supports up to three LED panels and we are only using two, leaving some pins physically available, we initially overlooked an important detail: data direction. LED panels are designed to receive data, while hall-effect sensors transmit data. As a result, when we first connected the sensor to the available GPIO pins, we were unable to read any signal.

After further debugging, we discovered that the Adafruit HUB adapter only supports unidirectional data flow on most pins, with the exception of the SDA and SCL lines. We then rerouted the hall-effect sensor to these pins, allowing proper data transmission back to the Raspberry Pi. Fortunately, this resolved the issue, and we were able to demonstrate a fully functioning hall-effect sensor during the interim demo.

After having a working project for the interim demo, I’m much more confident about where we are in our progress. I feel that we are now back on schedule and in good shape for the final demo.

Next week, I’m planning on working on the Raspberry Pi software to drive images to display as well as preparing final demo logistics.

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Team Status Report 3/28

Successfully integrated everything (except the display) this week.

One big issue we ran into this week was losing both of our displays. We realized that one of our displays was bricked, and shortly after, we proceeded to short our only remaining working display, so we’re currently working blind. We got the Pi working, so we can write the code, but we can’t verify if anything we’re writing is correct. We’ve since ordered express shipping on four new LED panels (we learned our lesson on redundancy), so that we can begin testing asap.

Other than the LED Display roadblock, we haven’t faced any additional significant challenges. One small component we may be redesigning in the near future is the chassis of the box. The individual components are currently a bit cramped inside our box, so we might redesign the box with a bit more room, as well as laser-cut a precision hole for the spinning metal rod to go through so it’s no longer rubbing against the plywood box.

As an update for our interim demo, here are some of our relevant figures and our updated schedule, which haven’t changed much since we began: Interim Demo Slides.

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Steven’s Status Report 3/28

 This week, my main focus was getting the motor running predictably. After digging through the ESC documentation, I figured out it’s controlled by a 50 Hz PWM signal (1ms for minimum power, 2ms for maximum). With that in mind, I wrote an Arduino program that lets us customize the motor speed using a simple percentage input. I also wired up a two-button setup on a breadboard: one to turn the motor on, and one to turn it off, which safely lets the motor coast to a slow stop at any point during operation.

Hardware-wise, I think we are finally back on track. Andrew and Kendric did some great work on the CAD side this week. The 3D-printed clamps are working surprisingly well and have pretty much solved the mechanical fit issues we were stressing about last week. We also finally got our microSD card, so the Pi is fully functional. But, ironically, we hit a massive new roadblock: both of our displays are dead (one is bricked, the other shorted out). So even though the Pi is ready to go, we can’t actually test any of our display code. We’ve express-ordered new 64×128 LED panels from China, but they definitely won’t be here in time for the interim demo.

Even without the physical screens, my goal for next week is to keep pushing forward on the software side. I’ll be writing the display code blind and working on integrating the Jetson Nano output so we’re completely ready to display real images the second those new panels arrive.

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Team Status Report 3/21

We didn’t hit any major new roadblocks this week. We spent a good chunk of time doing some preliminary testing on our 3D-printed clamp design, and the results were actually pretty encouraging. It feels sturdy enough to handle what we need. The biggest “problem” continues to be the overall mechanical fit. Now that we have the physical components, it’s clear that a lot of the parts we ordered don’t work great together. We also lost some testing time this week because we were missing a microSD card for the Pi, which kept us from really diving into the display and sensor integration.

Because the mechanical side is more complex than we originally thought, we’re making some adjustments to the chassis. We also realized the current mechanical connectors weren’t going to work, so we’ve ordered some new clamps and connectors to replace them. Moving forward, our plan is to pivot toward 3D printing a lot more of our own custom components rather than forcing the original parts to work. It’s a bit of a shift, but it’s the best way to make sure everything actually fits together securely.

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Steven’s Status Report 3/21

This week, I spent most of my time digging through the electrical schematics for our Raspberry Pi port adapter. Since the adapter hub takes up all the GPIO pins, I had to trace everything back to figure out which ports we can actually use for our Hall effect sensor. It took a bit of research to find where those pins lead, but I needed to be sure we could read the sensor data properly. We also hit a small snag because we didn’t have a microSD card for most of the week, which meant I couldn’t actually get the Pi and display up and running for testing.

To be honest, we’re running a little behind. When we first made the schedule, we didn’t really account for how soon the first product demo was coming up. Most of the electrical stuff is in good shape, but the mechanical side is way more complicated than we thought it would be. Now that we have the parts, we’ve realized a lot of them aren’t going to work the way we planned, so we’re pivoting to 3D print more of the components ourselves. That mechanical design is definitely our biggest hurdle right now.

Now that we have the microSD card, my main goal for next week is to finally get the Pi connected and try to drive the LED display. I’m also going to start testing the Hall effect sensor to make sure we’re actually getting the data we need.

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Team Status Report for 3/14

With all our components finally delivered, we spent the week transitioning from planning to active integration. Steven focused on the electrical subsystem, successfully verifying the power path from the rocker switch and PSU through to the motor control. Having the physical parts in hand has been important for Kendric, as he can now finalize the mechanical layout with exact dimensions, while Andrew has been balancing software development on the Jetson and Pi with the physical design. Our most significant risk currently involves several mechanical parts that don’t fit perfectly within our original chassis design. We are managing this by 3D printing custom adapters and using high-strength adhesives. If these adjustments don’t address our issues, we plan to find alternative mounting hardware locally to keep us on track.

There have been no changes to our system design, requirements, or block diagrams this week. While we are officially back on schedule, the “mid-semester” reality is setting in, and the final deadline feels much closer than it did before Spring Break. Although we haven’t needed to alter our technical specs, there is definitely a shared sense of urgency within the team to maintain this momentum. Now that the hardware is stable and being assembled, we’re in a good position to move into the final stages of integration without further delays.