Kira’s Status Report for 4/4

This week, my team and I presented our interim demo, which we prepared as an interactive way to show our progress. I wrote code to demonstrate the DMX transmitter and controller input by using faders (potentiometers) to send signals from the Arduino to an existing light, showing control of color and brightness. For verification, I confirmed the DMX receiver works by scoping both the input and output signals to check for correct transmission and timing.

As I worked on this, I focused on verifying my subsystem by making sure controller inputs map correctly to DMX values and produce the expected lighting outputs. I also used the oscilloscope to check signal consistency. Going forward, I plan to expand this testing to additional controls like pan, tilt, and focus, and check for accuracy and any noticeable delay.

For validation, we plan to test the full system by checking that the light responds correctly to all controller inputs for color and movement. We will compare expected vs. actual behavior, verify motion ranges, and observe responsiveness to ensure the system meets our design goals and works as intended for a user.

Additionally, our group continued fabrication by laser cutting the first rendition of our controller housing and soldering any components we can at this point. I plan to add more inputs and integrate the motor code with the DMX receiver soon. According to our Gantt chart, I am currently on schedule.

Ella’s Status Report for 4/4

This week I made a lot of fabrication progress. The pan mechanism is working and I got the arms spinning around, and also the head of the fixture is almost fully assembled. There are some things in the head that still need to happen, like angle grinding the lead screw down to length, adding some final fasteners, and figuring out a way to keep the gobo holder stagnant while the fixture moves. We also had our interim demo this week and we got some good feedback from all of our critiquers. Something that we definitely want to look into more that was a piece of feedback from Daniel our TA is adding thin padding around the focus motor to dampen the physical vibrations and hopefully reduce the noise. We are roughly on schedule, and as part of our interim demo we made an updated Gantt chart for the remainder of the semester. In the upcoming week, I intend to get the tilt mechanism working and ideally connect the head to the tilt mechanism, and IDEALLY connect the pan and tilt mechanisms and the head all together. If I don’t get all the systems together that would still be ok on our timeline. I also want to make more progress on the box for the base of the light, as this will be helpful for assembling the systems all together.

 

Pan video:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rlitiAY5163TgosCQWV2yORz7cq7cf2m/view?usp=sharing

Ella’s Status Report for 3/28

This week I did a lot of 3D printing and also a lot of Solidworks drawings. It’s been exciting to see various parts of the project come together, and I’m excited to continue seeing those integrations in the coming week. We tested out the focus mechanism this week with the LED, and it works! This isn’t really a surprise but is a nice milestone. Attached is my (very rough) first draft of the integration packet for the barrel assembly. I am thus far on track for the parts of the project that I am working on I believe, and this upcoming week will be mainly dedicated to the interim demo and making sure that the demo goes smoothly. After that we will just continue fabricating and integrating the different aspects of the project until it’s all put together. Exciting times! BARREL_ASSEMBLY.pdf

Kira’s Status Report for 3/28

This week I made good progress on the DMX system. I got both the transmitter and receiver working and tested them using an oscilloscope to make sure the signal coming out of the receiver matched what was being sent from the transmitter. I haven’t hooked the receiver up to the rest of the fixture yet, but the core communication is working reliably. I also spent time soldering the controller components so that everything is ready for our demo. On the software side, I went through our code files to make sure they’re clean and modular, which should make it much easier to add the motor and other input/output controls later. Overall, the system is coming together and I am excited to demo our project!

Team Status Report for 3/28

The most significant risk that could jeopardize the success of the project would be frying the LED chip or the power supply. Another risk would be not getting the controller to communicate properly with the light. To manage these risks, we have an extra LED chip and have been testing our equipment before we connect it to our power supply. In addition, to prevent the issue of the controller not communicating, we have a backup plan of wiring the controls directly to the light. However, it would cause us to not fulfill the use case requirement of professional compatibility from the DMX side. So far, changes have not been necessary to the design of the system since last week. Our schedule has changed a bit where the integration and fabrication are happening in parallel. This is because we realized that in order to integrate some components, other parts need to be fabricated first.

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.

Team Status Report for 3/21

The most significant risk that could jeopardize the success of the project would be if the parts that we ordered don’t come in time. We originally had issues with getting our LED chip, but it has been resolved. The other important piece of hardware we need is the connection to the power supply from the cable. However, if we don’t receive it, we will have to solder straight from the cable to our power supply, as one of the options. One change to the design of the system was the power and brightness of our LED. This change was required because we were not able to get the previous LED chip we wanted to order. It was lost in transit, and would take too long to get another one. This increases our cost of the LED chip from $10.99 to $15.99. This is still within our budget. Our schedule has not changed still, since we would start fabrication next week and then assembly.

Kira’s Status Report for 3/21

This week I made solid progress testing the DMX transmitter and basic controller functionality. I set up the DMX shield in transmit mode with the Arduino and used potentiometers as analog inputs to act as “faders” for our controller. I was able to successfully send signals to a theatrical RGBW light and verify that changing different DMX addresses and parameters worked as expected, specifically testing control over color and intensity. I had also planned to test DMX receiving, but since we only had one shield at the time, I couldn’t complete that portion. Now that we’ve received a second DMX shield, I will move forward with testing the receiver next week.

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.

Ella’s Status Report for 3/21

This week I got a lot of fabrication and test-fitting done. I got the focus mechanism fully assembled and working and decided to add a microswitch for homing. I am on schedule as of right now and am excited to see things coming together. In the next few days I will hopefully have all the major assemblies put together and then can start doing a full integration. I’m hoping to make nice fabrication drawings from my solidworks models, but we will see if I have time; at the end of the day I know how to fabricate the assemblies and don’t need the drawings, I kind of just want to have them because I think it would be cool and nice. I’m a little worried about the interim demo just because it is a lot of stuff to get done soon, but also we are on schedule and it should all work out. Included are some rough model images from various parts of the project in various stages.