This week, I helped Ella, who was the presenter for our final presentation, prepare. Also, I worked on the final report. My progress is on schedule, since all we have left to do is finish putting together the tilt mechanism and completing our testing for the light. In addition, we need to finish soldering our wires once the lengths that we need are finalized and finish assembling our controller. Next week, I hope to finish the final report, final poster, and record the video for our demo. In addition, before the demo day, we will have everything put together and working.
Chloe’s Status Report for 4/18
This week I worked with Kira to get the faders hooked up to the light for RGBW and brightness control. For this step, I wired the current drivers with the correct power rails and to the PWM pins on the arduino. Also, I soldered connections for the 50W light so that we could replace the 100W light. In addition, I soldered our wires to extend their length for the final assembly and hooked up power rails for the motors and microcontrollers. My progress is currently on schedule, since all aspects of the light and power distribution system are ready to go for the final assembly. I have started helping with assembly of the base and controller. Next week, I hope to have more components of the light control system soldered onto protoboards located in the base of the light and have the wires run through the arm of the light.
As I’ve worked on controlling the light and the power distribution system, I’ve had to learn a lot about how high power LED chips work and the power requirements that come with that. Before this project, I had only ever worked with LEDs like neopixels that come with a spot for a data pin. However, since this COB LED is voltage controlled, with each color of light needing different voltage and current requirements, it made the control of the light much more complex. In addition, I had previously been able to hook up my lights to standard power supplies, but the large amount of power the LED requires taught me how to distribute larger amounts of power and nonstandard voltages. To acquire this new knowledge, I read up on the documentation of the products, consulted webpages of existing lights, looked through webpages/forums of other people who have used similar LEDs before, and used Google to find out quick facts.
Team Status Report for 4/4
Currently, the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project are finding out that we need more components and either not having the budget to order them or not being able to order them in time. To manage these risks, we have backup plans for the major systems of our light. Some changes to the design of the system included running the LED off a current driver with a PWM pin instead of having only the voltage changed on the inputs. These changes were necessary to make the integration with the Arduino simpler. This added the cost of the current drivers, and we used the extra budget we had for these. No schedule changes have occurred since last week.
Some tests we are planning to run include tests for the angle of rotation, brightness of the light, noise levels of the motors, and movement of the focus mechanism. We have not run any tests so far, but we plan to run tests once we are further along in integration. To test our pan and tilt, we will record the pan and tilt motion of the light with our phones to verify the angle of rotation. To test the focus mechanism, we will shine the light on a surface up to 10 feet away and move the focus lens back and forth until the light is focused. To test that the light has RGB control and brightness control from the controller, we will move the faders that correspond to red, green, and blue and ensure the light changes as we expect. To test for noise levels, we will run the light with various pan, tilt, and focus patterns and check the noise level with a decibel meter on our phones. Finally, we will test by recording the light whether or not there is a delay from when signals are sent at the controller to when the light reacts to those signals.
Chloe’s Status Report for 4/4
This week I connected the step down converters for our light and revised the power diagram to power the 50W light instead of the 100W light we originally received. This is because it is more compatible with our current drivers. I also did research and placed an order for current drivers which also include a PWM pin for control of our light from the Arduino. I also prepared slides and materials at the beginning of the week for our interim demo. My progress is on schedule since we are still working on integration and fabrication together this week. Next week, I hope to get the LED connected to the Arduino and have control over DMX from the controller to the LED. In addition, I hope to have everything that is already fabricated to be able to run off the power supply we have, so things can slowly be put into the base. If we are able to finish the fabrication and integration of everything in the head of our light, then I also hope to begin soldering the components together.
I have already done some preliminary testing. My testing has included verifying that there is RGB and brightness control of the LED, that the fans of the light and power supply are below 50 dB, and that the power draw of the components is as expected. In addition, I have checked that the voltage and current of the objects matches what we expected to receive from datasheets. For future testing, I will verify that the cooling, light and power system meet our design and use case requirements, I will conduct the tests described in our report. To ensure that the light is bright enough, I will check the lumens output with a light meter app on my phone. To check that the light has RGB control and brightness control, I will run different color combinations on out controller and visually inspect that the individual red, green, and blue LEDs can all be controlled. In addition, to test that our cooling system meets the design requirements, I will check with a decibel meter on my phone that the noise level is below 50 dB Finally, to check that the power system meets the requirements, I will check that all the components are able to run with the power supply and that it is able to run for at least 2 hours.
Chloe’s Status Report for 3/28
This week, I received the connector for our power supply and connected it to the individual components we have. In addition, I was able to adjust the resistances of the circuit to allow control over LED brightness and color with one voltage instead of the different voltages like before. I was able to get the brightness of the different colors to be pretty similar, but since the amount of current drawn is unequal, I found it a bit difficult to get them to change brightness at the same rate. In addition, I ordered some step down converters so we can power the different items off the same power supply. My progress is on schedule, since there isn’t any fabrication needed for the components, and it needs to happen while integration happens. Next week, I hope to connect the step down converters to the light and continue to fine tune the brightness of the different colors. Also, this will have most of the components of our light connected together, and I can help with the controller.
Chloe’s Status Report for 3/21
This week, I finished the design of our power system for the light and the controller, given the power source we received. In addition, I put in an order for some adapters to our power cable to the light and received the LED chip. I also started laying out the wiring for our light this week. Our progress is currently on schedule, since I was able to finish the design of the power system, and am waiting on parts to arrive to start powering all our items. I was also able to get our LED chip, which was previously missing, but I had to get a different LED chip. The changes in the LED chip shouldn’t affect the design too much, since I had originally planned to get this chip but changed to a lower power one since we didn’t need it to be that bright. However, with the new LED, it will be brighter and draw more power. Next week, I hope to finish the wiring layout of the power system and start wiring the motors and the LED to the power supply. In addition, I hope to get some parts of the controller wired, like the sliders.
Team’s Status Report for 3/14
Currently, the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project is if our LED doesn’t come in time. To manage this week, we have decided on a backup plan of neopixels since we already have them. Although they may not be as bright as we want them to be, we can combine an array of them to simulate the LED we bought until it arrives. So far, no changes to the design of the system have been made. If we do have to make any changes, we will either make sure that the things we need to purchase for it will arrive quickly, or we will use materials we currently have. No schedule changes have occurred since last week, and we still plan to work on individual components these next two-ish weeks before putting everything together. It doesn’t affect the overall schedule because we had built-in time for unexpected issues.
Chloe’s Status Report for 3/14
This week, we just received more of the parts for the project, but are still waiting on the LED. In addition, we worked on the ethics assignment for the discussion next week. I have also worked on finishing the power diagram for the light and have looked at more specs of the different parts we have to make sure we don’t fry anything. Our schedule is now on track, since the parts have been ordered and I still have some time to finish up the design. Something that may impact the schedule of the project in the future is if we don’t receive the LED soon. To prevent this from becoming a big issue, we have a backup plan of using some neopixels we already have to get the code and control working, and we will move to the LED once it arrives. Next week, I plan to have the power system fully designed and basic controls of the LED. In addition, I hope to start wiring the motors to the power supply if we have time, and to start putting together the wiring with the CAD models to make sure there isn’t any snagging of wires when the light is rotating.
Chloe’s Status Report for 3/7
This week, I worked on writing various sections of the design report. I focused on the abstract, introduction, user needs, design requirements, testing, project management, related work, and summary sections. In addition, I finalized the power converter we will use based on the specs of our ordered parts and placed an order request for it. My progress is a bit behind what we initially set because we just finished ordering parts this week. I was planning on having the power system and LED system fully designed after break, which is still on track, but I will likely need to see the physical thing to be sure of what I have designed. To catch up to the project schedule, I will use the buffer time we included before we integrate parts to get each subsystem working. In addition, now that almost all our parts have been ordered, I can nail down how everything will be connected. Next week, the week after break, I plan to work on the code needed for LED control, and finish up the design of our power system once everything arrives.
Chloe’s Status Report for 2/21
This week, I helped Kira, our presenter, prepare for the design presentation. In addition, I started on the draft of our Design Report using the provided template. In addition, I ordered the parts needed for our lighting and cooling system so we can start working on it next week. For the power system, I wasn’t able to finalize the parts needed, since I am still looking for a good AC/DC converter that provides enough power while also being small enough to fit inside the base of our light, along with the other components there. My progress is still on schedule, since I was planning on having the power system fully designed out after spring break and for the lighting modules to be completed after spring break too. Next week, I hope to find an appropriate power converter and finish the draft of the design report. In addition, if I have enough time, I also want to start looking at the code I will need for the LED control.