WarmUp Boot Logs

Week 1 (1/23-1/30)

After forming our team and consolidating our skill sets, we decided that we want to take our project to have a core of hardware/building, with minimal coding. Originally we were heading towards the path of a robot performing a simple task, but in the end we chose to build something that us three can be passionate about: a ski boot warmer powered by a solar panel.

Week 2 (1/30-2/5)

• Focused on breaking down our budget to be as specific as possible
• Met with our TA, Nathan Schmetter, about the logistics of our project.
  • Brought up two types of heaters: (1) resistor-based (2) Peltier device heater
  • Incorporate an Arduino to develop the temperature threshold system (allowing user to control temperature)
  • Preliminary challenge identification
  • Talked about how we plan on presenting our project at the demo
• Wrote up our project proposal, including the Gantt Chart

Week 3 (2/6-2/12)

• Met with Nathan to go over our proposal
  • Then waited for Humberto's comments
• Amended our project proposal to address the flaws highlighted in our feedback, which included:
  • Lack of detail in describing the user interface
  • Omitting our beloved Nathan from our team members section
  • Omitting general safety from our challenges
  • Failing to reference the circuit tutorials we will be following to use Arduino to both heat up and adjust the temperature of the heating pads
• We also made a huge pivot in our project in eliminating the solar panel component
  • This will remove the need of a UV light to demo
  • Also will free up a bunch of our budget (skis on craigslist went for about $30, a good fifth of the budget)
  • Will allow us to devote more time and effort to an already complicated system, the interface-heating pad system.
• Amended our budget accordingly
  • Included 9V battery adapter and wall power source
  • Added a solderable breadboard
  • Added potentiometers for the buttons
  • Added Gorilla Epoxy to help for ensuring a waterproof seal
• We were having trouble deciding on the battery, but we are going to go ahead with Nathan's suggestion and simply, during the testing phase, use 9V batteries