WEEK 6
embedded programming
Overview
This week, we programmed our programmable boards.
electronics design recap
A couple weeks ago, for the electronics design project (week 4 page link), I managed to finish my board, bootload it and program an IR light to light up with the push of a button (thanks to Rob). Thus, I came into this week pretty relaxed.
Simply to finish this week's assignment, I switched out the light (since, as cool as IR is, would be even cooler to actually see the board work) and programmed it to blink when pressed.
helping gabby with tangibelt
two birds with one stone
To make our lives easier, Gabby and I decided to make a prototype for a different class this week in which we are on the same team. We designed a belt that would sense the direction of incident IR light and vibrate a motor at the point of incidence. This way, one could play a game where the wearer of this IR sensing belt could be blindfolded and feel the direction of others wearing IR-emitting belts, from the light hitting sensors and setting off motors:
just one bird
My first availability was Saturday morning, but unfortunately by then the programming of boards was already pretty much finished so there was little room for me to contribute to this particular project in a way that would also work with HtM. Pretty much, my contribution was just figuring out how to make the N-channel mosfet boards to protect the motors and arduino based on Rob's vague but helpful sketch, making them, and helping to attach them to the belt, the final task.
Even if I didn't have the chance to participate as much as I had hoped, it's a really cool project and Gabby worked super hard (we all did, but it's the difference between 12-15 hours and 40+ hours). To see a more details about this project, including its intro video to read more details, see Gabby's page.
halloween plans
time is up
After spending the weekend helping with Tangibelt and having an astron/cosmo test Wednesday, I did not have time to do my own super cool project other than the basic one mentioned above. However, I definitely plan to spend Thursday making my halloween constume--a deep-sea angler fish (specifically, a Fanfin Seadevil) complete with LEDs and blacklights to incorporate both bioluminecense and bioflourescent aspects. Yes, I'm an ecology nerd. So, I drew up some plans:
to do - costume update
coming thursday
Best Costume
inspiration
Wanting to utilize LEDs/what we've learned so far in my costume this year, I convinced my boyfriend to do costumes that have something to do with bioluminescence/florescence. I was doing some research and was deeply inspired by this quote about Fanfin Seadevils:
"Once a male finds a female, a seemingly impossible task in the vast open space of the deep sea, he bites onto her body, the tissues and circulatory systems of the two fuse, and he is fed by nutrients received through her blood. The male becomes a “sexual parasite,” hanging on for the rest of his life and unable to free himself, fertilizing the eggs produced by the female. The male completely loses his individuality and the couple becomes a single functioning organism." - link to article
Feeling inspired and with the attitude of a female angler, I told my boyfriend without asking that this is what we will be doing for halloween. They are really beautiful creatures:
design
Using a board with LED's connected with wires and either suspended with bendy wires and nilon or something 3D printed (or molded and casted?), the goal is to look something like the image below, the board programed to, at the very least, turn them on or off with the press of a button.
But, when my prey gets too close, these lights will turn off and a single black light in place of the lure will illuminate my true face (painted on top of non-flourescent dark blue with flourescent paint)
execution
Pretty much Nathan just helped me adjust a premade program on the alien computer and load it onto the LEDs.
Results
An uncanny resemblance to a deep sea angler:
in the dark:
back
Alex did not want to be a male angler so instead, he was a sea explorer, exploring my deep seas.
