Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Update on what happened and what's happening

Earlier on Monday Sarah C. helped me with my wiring, as it was a little mixed up. I got my waveshield to play and register the pressure of the force sensor. I also got the proper code needed to make it work. My card was acting funky however, and it wouldn't reset the button like it was supposed to.

It was suggested that my SD card was faulty, and that the code should work if I got a new card. So I went to Wal-mart that night and got an SD card. I also got a circuit board and a DC plug adaptor thing.

Today I tried soldering the wires to the circuit board and the plug with little to no luck. I even had the soldering iron turned up on a high temperature, but it was to no avail. I was only destroying the plastic. I had to use hot glue instead. After all of this set up, the waveshield didn't detect the force sensor. To make sure that it wasn't how I set up/soldered/glued the circuit board, a reset all the wires in the breadboard like I had them before and tried the code. it didn't work, even with the new card.

On top of that, the waveshield couldn't be powered by the plug adaptor. I tried two separate ones, but neither work. Was my soldering/gluing just that bad? I'm not sure. At that point I just couldn't troubleshoot anymore. It was too late and i needed to work with what I had. Originally my project was supposed to be the waveshield sewn inside of a chair with a force sensor attached. When yous at in the chair, the force sensor would detect the pressure and play audio warning you that you had 5 minutes.

(On another smaller note I went to several stores looking for the chair I needed (which was listed as being in-store online) only to find that they were no longer in stock) So I had to settle on using a chair cushion)

Since the adaptor didn't work, the waveshield has to run off of my computer. Also, when I sit on my cushion, the speaker (despite how I protected it) stops playing. It was naive or dumb of me to think that the speaker would be able to withstand the weight so long as it was pillowed with fluff and surrounded by styrofoam, but that's what I thought. As I last left off, once you sit, it stops playing, but when I stood up it would start playing again. I can only hope that it does the same thing during crit and doesn't stop altogether. If no one sits on it, the audio loops in the continual foreboding announcement. In essence it still holds the spirit of what iw as trying to explore with anxiety.

What I did like was the audio recording I did. It gave me anxiety listening to it repeat " You have 5 minutes" in this almost ominous voice. I am very satisfied with the voice file. I wish this was an audio project honestly, but it's arduino. The majority of my sweat went into making the waveshield function. My arduino board died,and I was lucky enough that there was a spare one in the workroom. I'm extremely frustrated, but it's late and I have to except that this is where my project is. I worked hard on my concept and trying to pull it together,but it looks like even that much was too much for me. I can only show what I have I suppose.

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