Midterm Progress - more videos!

We have been working hard in the woodshop as well as the digital media lab to figure out a way to house our motor, arduino, and pulley system for the line to go in and out of the box.

We thought we would be using two DC motors to make our winding spool go both forward and in reverse. However, we found we can just use one for the time being and program it to change direction after a certain length of time or distance of the string. Here are two videos of our progress and building a housing unit for our motor and spool system.

 

This is our ultrasonic rangefinder in action! We've realized that given the parameters we need for this project, we will need more than one rangefinder to trigger the box to suck up the dollar bill. We have started to wiring three ultrasonic rangefinders and are having progress!

This is our first reading of the rangefinder. We found that it has a range of about 71 inches or just under 6 ft. If we want to be sure that any participant can have the same experience with our piece, we'll have to include sensors to the right and left sides of the box as well as down the middle. 

We decided against using a type of tripwire sensor or sensor from that of a floodlight because the range and chance was higher that our motor will be triggered at the wrong time when someone even enters the room. We want the participant to be attracted by the laying twenty dollar bill, to have them decide to approach it.