Peek-a-Thief log

Weekly Logs

Week 1: This week we focused on the design of our enclosure and we agreed that the best set up is a V-shaped entrance so that the critter can enter from a wide angle and not feel trapped in the process. Also, we spent time between classes observing the behavior of squirrels and how close we can get to them without them running away. We found that if food is provided to the animal, they are more than happy to consume starch products and nuts. Specifically, the Eastern Gray Squirrel prevalent on the WashU campus like to consume walnuts even though we have spotted them "dumpster diving" in outdoor trash cans and eating whatever they can find. We also found a project that is very similar to us on google, except the inventors were targeting birds. Here is the link to their project.

Week 2: This week we changed our project idea to comply with Washington U. regulations regarding animals. We spent the week planning out our entire project timeline (outlined in our Gantt Chart) and finalizing (pending approval) our design/ set-up. We immediately want to order our supplies and stay on schedule with our timeline. (Our new project idea is to capture thieves red-handed. Every time you open the drawer, a sensor will be triggered that calls upon a hidden camera to snap a photo of the thief. Our plan is to insert this hidden camera inside a teddy bear sitting on top of the drawer. We feel the teddy bear will hide the electrical wires and cameras discretely.)

Week 3: We got our project approved on the evening of Friday Feb 24th, 2017. We immediately ordered all supplies that we would need for our project and collected inventory of parts that we said we could use from the lab. We also got our own locker for our parts. Since the approval process was delayed, this was the most we can do this week.

Week 4: We downloaded Python and began coding for our project using a source code from Feeder Tweeter. To become more familiar with Python code, we completed introductory lessons on Code Academy. We also designed the support for our sensors on Solidworks. While designing, we knew we had to print out holes in the base of the support in order for us to attach the HC-SR04 sensor to it. Therefore, we looked up the dimensions of the specific sensor online from the manufacturer. This process took less time than expected since Will had experience with the program and was able to guide us on how to use all the software tools. We were able to save the solidworks design and print out the pieces successfully. With the additional time we had, we also researched how the breadboard works and started to familiarize ourselves with wiring. Lastly, we edited our wiki page to adjust for some aesthetics regarding our Ganntt Chart and minor typos.

Week 5: Originally, we 3-D Printed the HC-SR04 sensor support with holes based on a template online. Once the pieces were printed out, we realized that the distance between the holes was not correct for our specific model. To fix this we drilled holes on our own and connected the sensor to the support by putting tiny nails through the holes and bending them at the end which kept the sensor solidly in place. We also ordered a raspberry pi charger because the school did not have enough in supply. The coding part of our project was on hold until we received the charger because the raspberry pi had to charge while in use. We also saw videos on YouTube on how to set-up the raspberry pi and read over the tutorial on the wiki page. We could not test or calibrate the sensors because we need to connect them to the pi which is not available at the moment.

Week 7: This week the charger, the pi camera and the connection cable came in the mail. Having the charger, we tried starting up the raspberry pi in lab. The first issue we encountered was that the light on the pi would not turn on when the charging cable was connected. Fortunately, we we were able to find another pi in lab that was not being used. The light worked on this pi, indicating it was charging this time, but we could not find the username and password associated with the SD card installed in that pi as the general introduction password we found online did not work. Then, we had to use our original SD card in the new raspberry pi, but it had to be configured first. From the tutorial and videos we watched before spring break, we tried to install the initialization files from the raspberry pi website onto our blank SD card. Again, we encountered another problem because the files extracted from the website were too large for the microUSB chip we were using. Both of us were in lab for 3 hours in one day trying to delete current files on the chip and waited for the files to download. Each time, the installation crashed when 90% of the needed files were downloaded. This week was very frustrating as we cannot move further with our project until the raspberry pi is up and working.

Week 8: We started assembling the drawer and positioning the Teddy Bear. We could not get much work which was very frustrating as we cannot move further with our project until the raspberry pi is up and working.

Week 9: We got the pi up and running--finally! Now, we are integrating the sensors and testing them to ensure we can achieve consistent results.