Smart Blinds Weekly Log

Project page: Smart Blinds

Week 1

September 11
0.5hr Sam

• Created a wiki page.

September 12
1hr
Sam and Toby

• Met with TA Will
  
• Learned the basis of wiki.
  
• Studied the circuit and built the night light on the breadboard.
  
• Discussed the material needed for the project.
  

September 14
2hr Toby

• Created a proposal draft

2hr Sam and Toby

• Met with TA Will
  
• Finish soldering Night Light on perfboard
  
• Discussed proposal
  
• TA gave advise on the proposal

Week 2

September 18
2hr Sam

• Created budget
• Created Gantt Chart

September 19
0.5hr Toby

• Finished the proposal before meeting with the instructor

2hr Sam

• Finalized Gantt Chart and material list

0.5hr Toby and san

• Meet with TA and instructor

September 21
2hr Toby

• Finalized proposal based on instructor's advice
• Created a presentation power point

Week 3

September 24
3hr Sam

• Started to learn Onshape
• Designed rough draft of night light case

September 26
1hr Sam

• Updated Gantt Chart

1.5 hr Toby

• Looked for user interface and AC/DC convertor online
• Updated budget and presentation

September 28
2hr Sam

• Learned additional Onshape techniques
• Finished Night Light Case

Week 4

September 30
2hr Toby

• Ordered material online
• Reviewed programming for Arduino
• Learned the code of Arduino to stepper motor

October 2
1.5hr Sam

• Researched onshape design techniques for fitting parts
• Exported Night Light case stl file

October 3
1hr Sam and Toby

• Met with TA Will
• Discussed the Arduino programming of photo-resistor and stepper motor control

October 5
2hr Sam and Toby

• Built the circuit for stepper motor and photo-resistor
• Wrote codes for Stepper motor and photo-resistor separately
• Succeeded in turning on the stepper motor and reading inputs from the photo-resistor

Challenges:

• The purchased photo-resistor did not provided desired inputs, so our team built a simple circuit containing a photo-resistor
• Need to find the correct delta timing for photo resistor reading in Arduino coding
• Need to figure out the codes for stepper motor in order to achieve desired effects

Week 5

October 7
1.5hr Toby

• Wrote codes to gain the correct outputs of photo-resistor
  • The arduino will read 100000 inputs over a time interval of about 3 minutes and calculate the average of the total inputs

2hr Sam

• Took measurements of blind components and stepper motor
• Created a preliminary design of motor to blind connection

October 8
3hr Toby

• Met TA Will
• Found a more useful arduino library for the driver online
• Figured out the functions of the codes
  • Able to turn on the stepper motor for a desired number of rotations
  • Able to stop and reverse the stepper after a certain number of rotations
• Built a primitive interface between the stepper motor and the luminosity reader

Challenges:

• Have yet tested the codes
• Some loop logic errors may still exist

October 9
2.5hr Sam

• Started 3d design of part to translate stepper motor rotation to blind movement
• Updated Gantt Chart