Final Project Critique

Reflections:

We were really excited when the wind sensor was working properly and just a puff would trip the relay box to then turn the light on. We learned that the wind sensor varies in every location so at the apartment when the air kicked on, the relay box would kick even when no one was blowing on it. We had to take that into consideration when figuring out the correct threshold. We also learned that making our own candle is a pain in the butt. We're boycotting candles and wax for a good while. In critique they're were some suggestions that we would like to move forth with. One was using a real candle and a real flame instead of the LED. We would love to experiment with that for the future maybe for even our senior project. Another was that the LED was red. Very true perhaps a yellow or even white LED would have been better. Lastly was with the presentation. Although this apparatus had wires and batteries coming from each way, concealing everything would have been better for presentation (although we tried with black electrical tape). A table cloth could have done the trick or drilling holes through the side table could have done it as well. These are all things we will take into consideration if we decide to move forward with this project. It was really exciting getting it to actually work and convert to AC power. We're both really excited about how much we've learned through this course. 

Final Project

so we finished the candle after it cracking about a million times...

after finishing the candle we went to the crit space to install and plug in everything for a final test run and thankfully all was well and working

Process Final Project

So we are trying to make this project pretty and we decided on making our own candle instead of hollowing out another one.... Mission and a half but it's going.. after 10 fails.

 

Long, long process. It's taking us 2 days so far. and what a mission to get the candle out of the glass...

Here is another trial video of our sensors!!!!! 

LED is on, wind sensor is blown on, lamp turns on!

Process Final Project

So in class we were testing why the outlet exploded the night before......

and we figured out it was not the way we connected the wires to the outlet but that it was the multimeter that we were checking the voltage with..... who would have guessed. The multimeter was not marked so we placed the red and black wires in the improper holes of the multimeter. Once we fixed that there were thankfully no more explosions. YAYYY

We tested the outlet plugged in to see if there was any voltage coming out of it and there was 120 V.

Now this is after the multimeter problem where we tested the voltage so that when Miriam blew on the wind sensor, the relay box would click on and the voltage on the multimeter would hit 120. We also had to adjust the code so that the relay box would start LOW and then when the threshold was hit it would switch to HIGH for 10 seconds and back to LOW.

We then plugged in the lamp to the outlet and the outlet to the wall.... and....

it worked!!! that was exciting!!! 

so we needed to adjust the threshold so people didn't have to faint to blow on the wind sensor. Here is our finalized code:

Our next problem was figuring out what people were going to blow on so we decided a candle. As people blew on the LED of a candle, the LED would go off and the lamp would then turn on. (This code above also includes the LED part)

Process Final Project

We purchased some new crappier outlets since the GFCI ones were too safe.

We also bought an LED light bulb because it does not take as much power as a regular lightbulb does. 

Here is the new outlet connected in the same manner as the other one:

First trial with uploading and all.... We blew the fuse in the computer.... Way to go us.

Second time... we changed computers and plugged it all up and put the multimeter to check the voltage of the outlet and there was an explosion...... so we decided to stop and go get new outlets

Here's the nice damage we did to the outlet. We also blew out the relay box but thankfully we soldered 3 others!

Process Final Project

We are now working on the big boy stuff:

Here is a picture of all the components:

- gfci outlet

- the nail mount

- extension cord

We connected the extension cord to the relay box

We connected the other wires that will connect to the arduino into the relay box

Here is it all compiled with the outlet connected to the relay box connected to the arduino

The code has been uploaded to the arduino now it's time to blow on the wind sensor

Trial one:

Once the wind sensor was blown on, the safety latch on the outlet would release, causing the electricity to stop.

Trail two:

Same problem :(

Solution: the outlet is too safe!!! Need to get a crappier outlet

Final Project Prototype Video and Code

Next step for Wednesday:
- getting something to plug into wall

Final Project Process: Relay Boxes

Our relay boxes came in the mail. YAY

So we are now soldering them. YAY
and learning about it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kg6MP163dQ&feature=youtu.be&t=8s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvAiM22WYHY

Ladyada Multimeter Exercise

Resistor

 Potentiometer

 9V Battery

W

Ladyada Lessons 5

http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/lesson5.html

http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/lesson6.html

Final Project: Development of a prototype

Beginning of Prototype

We are thinking on a smaller scale for the prototype since we do not have all the materials quite yet.

Our first instinct was to play with an LED for now.

We are using the arduino Knock sketch. When blowing on the wind sensor, after a threshold is hit, the LED will light and also the words "knock" will be displayed in the serial monitor.

Our next step is to add to the code to create a delay make the light stay on for 20 seconds after the threshold has been hit. 

Here is the code so far:

Blowing on the wind sensor to turn the light on then the light turns off after a mini delay

Blowing on the wind sensor which turns the LED both on and off

Final Project Proposal

 

Things to think about:

- Someone will need to be blowing on the wind sensor in order for the light to go on. Think about threshold and the delay so there is some time of light between the next person needed to breathe. 

- Scale of the lamp, what will the lamp/lamps look like?

- What to blow on? How to make people realize the important to blow on something in order for light within the space

- What are objects that people blow on?

- Think of breath as a switch

- bubbles, dandelions, pinwheels, whistles,

RFID exercise

RFID

Research Project 2: How to Interface A/C appliances with arduino

How to Interface A/C appliances with Arduino


A relay box: for controlling power from your wall socket using an arduino or microcontroller.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Controlled-Relay-Box/

Controlling Big, Mean, Deviceshttps://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/119

project 33, 34, 35

Project 33: Basic Touch Screen

Project 34: Touch Screen Keypad

Project 35: Touch Screen Light Controller 

House Collaborative Ideas Final Project

Our first project used the following:

Windsor
Arduino
Processing

With these combination we were able to create a visual/audio experience with the effect of someone breathe.

Some ideas where it would affect a domestic home space:

-Door bell (entrance to space)
-Portable remote (to turn on something)
-Effect the lights of the living space
-Portrait pictures of breathe with pretty frames

Process Project 1

Working on the code for sound in relation to the graph

We are working with Minim on Processing.

The first example we tried was through the Arduino. As you blew to a certain threshold, the serial monitor would say "knock." We were thinking of then within Processing that when the knock threshold was hit, a sound (a file) would play.

We decided this tactic was not completely what we wanted but we actually wanted a constant tone and the frequency be affected by the wind sensor.

We merged two sketches, one being the graph visual being affected by the serial output and the other being an example from the minim library, sin wave signal.

We were not able to successfully get the sound to continue after the sketch was played. After many attempts, we discovered that the problem was that there needed to be a timer because the serial output was being calculated too fast for the sound to follow.

Here is the full code:
For Arduino:

For Processing:

Success!!!
The blowing/breathing on the wind sensor affects the visual graph as well as the frequency of the sound.

Here are pictures of the final built box to place the computer as well as the arduino/windsensor in

Critique Pictures Project 1