Final Post.

So this is the last post of our blog officially ending the 22.201 Design Project with Professor Sullivan.
The team consisted of three members, Rachid Belhaj, Tobin Brown, and Kelly Chan. For our project we originally had anticipated on creating an LED cube programmed with the arduino. After failed attempts and trials of error with the idea, it ended up a mess and therefore we decided to scrap the idea. The details of our attempts are posted in the blog. To salvage our cube parts we decided to make a pig roast with the LEDs flickering to make it seem like a fire pit. We designed a solidworks part, which is also posted in the blog, to be 3d printed as our actual pig. After we got the 3D pig vetoed by Professor Sullivan in such short notice we just decided to have a part laser cut. It certainly doesn't look as cool as it would have been if it were in 3D but we got what we could.
In relation to the failed LED cube, it would have been neat if we were able to make one. I think if we were able to program the cube it light in the shape of  a fire it would have looked at lot neater. We definitely have a better understanding of how to maneuver things when making the cube so that things don't fall on top of eachother. We'll take this experience and remember from our mistakes if ever we have to construct anything similar to it again.
Everything else, like the servo motor and stuff went off without a hitch. We had our setup done and were just waiting for our parts for the remainder of the week up until this point.

Overall, we think our project turned out to be a complete success! Everything worked as planned and everything is all said and done. We had a great time working with eachother, communication was spot on and our efforts were all answered with achievement.



- Team Us.

2D Laser Cut Part.

Today is the day the project is due. We literally JUST got word that our lasercut part was going to be done by 10AM  today. Finally.
Later today is the Project Expo, we won't be able to attend for some of us have work during the expo and we need all of us to be there. So below, I have posted a few images of our cardboard part, a video of the part moving with the servo and also a video of the entire project in full swing. This is the first time we tested it with all the components together and hopefully it all goes according to plan.

Tobin managed to snag some bread bag ties to attach the part to the motor.

SUCCESS!

Overall Idea

Okay, I figured if we didn't get the part in time, I'd at least show what we had in mind with this project. Here I posted just a pencil and paper sketch of everything. There are two arduinos, a servo, LED lights, and a pig. The pig is the object we wanted to have 3d printed/laser cut. on the top is listed with the things mentioned above and below is how we were going to set everything up. The servo would rotate the made part above the pulsating LED lights to make it look like its roasting.

Cheesy, we know.


Here is a link to our google drive which contains the two solidworks parts we made for this project:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bw29l4qYnW1QX0gzU3hqSXBQRUE&usp=sharing

Bad News.

SO we just got some bad news about our 3d part. We resubmitted it a few days ago and just today, we got word that it can't be printed. Our only option now is to have it laser cut out of cardboard.

It's just an outline of the original idea. It's no more than 5 inches long. We need this part ASAP.

Servo.

Tobin, coded and set up his arduino to run a servo motor.

Here's is the code he used, it was found in an example on the arduino program on one of the school computers.

It runs beautifuly. It's just what we need to make our part rotate.
Here is a video if it below:

Crunch time.

Okay so, we had our request go in December 5th, it's now the 9th and we still hadn't got any word.
With the project due Friday, things are getting worrisome.

If we don't have it by Wednesday, tomorrow, we're just going to have to forgo the 3D printed part and make one out of other materials. It won't look as cool, but it's something, a prototype.
Hopefully it all works out.

*Fingers Crossed*

IDEA.

So after looking at that ferocious lighting effect, it started to look like a flickering fire to me. With that, I figured we could make use of that imagery and roast a pig! We could 3D print a pig on a rod and attach it to a servo to make it rotate on top of the LEDs.
Okay, I must admit, it probably wasn't the coolest idea, but with the failed LED cube and due date due on this project, I thought it made sense.

So after talking to over with the rest of the group, we decided to give it a go. Tobin used Solidworks to make the part and it turned out pretty fantastic.

We sent in the request to have it printed on Friday, December 5. 2014. Hopefully we get it soon. 

Coding.

Now that I had something, I needed to code it to make it light it up. Instead of just blinking or lighting up I decided to have it sort of blink sporadically. It wouldn't have been boring. I found inspiration from an make use of post of a pulsating arduino LED cube. 

It can be found here : http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-make-a-pulsating-arduino-led-cube-that-looks-like-it-came-from-the-future/

Once I programmed it onto my arduino, it actually lit. I can fiddle with the code to change its time constant which will control how fast it moves. The two videos below just show the speed differences of what I programmed the time constant to be, there's a slower one and a faster one. I also added a potentiometer to adjust the brightness of  the LEDs. I can't really leave it on too high because there's a high chance if I did, the LEDs would blow out considering I only incorporated one resistor. 

Here's a snapshot of it lit up 

New Idea.

Okay so now that the LED cube is no longer in our plans, we needed a new idea. All I had really was that initial ground layer of the LED cube so instead of just wasting my hard work, I decided to just use it. I ended up wiring every LED to my arduino. I had 16 of them and just one resistor. That was probably a bad idea but I didn't want my bread board looking like a nest. I'll just have to be careful not to blow out the LEDs.

Failure.

So the cube attempt ended in a complete mess. I couldn't quite solder the layers on top of eachother without them falling into eachother. I don't have enough LEDs to start over and I really just have to scrap this idea of making an LED cube.

Trial and Error. Many errors.

The process

So I got started on the LED cube. I used references on instructables. There were a bunch of different posts on cubes so I just looked at all of them to get an overall idea.

This was what I started out with. LED lights, some wires, and a soldering iron were among them.

The first was getting the base layer done which was on the breadboard. I wasn't sure how to space them so it ended up kind of small. I figured it would turn out tall and skinny.

 

The next steps were tricky, making the remaining 3 layers. It wasn't quite as smooth as previous one since it was on top of a bread board, I had issues soldering in like mid air. So after quite some time or trial and error, wasted LEDs, I realized I needed a template that would hold everything in place. So I got the clever idea to use cardboard since it was all I had. It worked quite well.

I connected the LEDs with some wire and managed to finish the 4 layers. All that's left is to stack them together which I'm still trying to figure out how to.

This process took a lot of time, more than I anticipated. It gave me a lot insight of what to do better if I ever have to deal with something like this again.

Ideas.

So we have recently discussed our interests for the project.
We have decided to go with an LED cube with a laser cut attachment.

After this weekend we hope ti get fully started on the project and post more to document our tries.
There will probably be multiple tries but that's inevitable. No one in the group has ever made one so it'll be interesting.

Day 1. Our initial Meeting

Team Us.

We are currently a three member group consisting of :

Kelly Chan
Tobin Brown
Rachid Belhaj


Arduino Projects we are interested in:
- thermostats and fans
-led cubes


We aren't entirely sure what our actual model/prototype will be yet.
In the events to come, this blog will act as our train of thoughts.

In the next few posts, will be of videos/ project ideas we like and hopefully an idea for this project will come out of it.



Group Selfie.