Author: Curtis

Throughout this project, there are a lot of things I learned. I learned a lot of new things about various hardware and even new things about programming. And as corny as it sounds I learned a few things about myself that I could improve on.

This project took many different turns and detours throughout these few weeks. After many trial and errors I finally the entire project to work. Working with the hardware was definitely easier than working with the programming side. I ran into a lot of problems with the programming aspect of this project. This is where I should have asked the professor for some help and advice for.  This is the aspect where I had to learn more about myself is the fact that I have to learn to ask for help. If I had asked for the professor’s help earlier I would have gotten this entire project down earlier.

With this,  I was able to get the automatic feeder to work! Unfortunately, through this method I am only able to get the feeder to work if I use the time library. I am able to use the code to start the internal clock at a certain time. This code uses the internal timer to set the servo motor to move at a certain time. I set it so it would be move at 9 A.M and 6 P.M. A normal time for a dog to eat.

For my set up, I had a cap on the top so I could put in feed through the top. For the bottom part I had two cardboard pieces cut out. Both of the pieces both had a 45 cut out of them. The bottom piece would always be stagnant so I had it hot glued to the container. Then the top piece would be the piece that was moving. I had the top piece connected to the servo motor so the feed would be able to go through the holes that were cut out when the two cardboard pieces would be aligned. I had the Servo in a sweeping motion because it is the most efficient way possible.

Finally, the final step for my project was to use the api into getting the webpage to work. Getting the api to work was not that hard due to the fact that the code was already on the class website. I just had to figure out how to use the code efficiently to make sure the servo would turn at the specific times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For my final project proposal, I want to do a project related to wearable’s due to the fact that I was inspired by Erica Kermani. I was also inspired by her passion for activism. I want to create something that will assist everyday people in their daily lives. I was surprised at the versatility of the use of simple foam/cloth with the combination of sewing.

I want to create a wearable that will be similar to the project that Erica Kermani gave us. I want to create a platform that would be a wearable but at the same time a wearable that is non-intrusive to the comfort of our clothes. I want to create something that can connect with the MQTT broker. Therefore it will have to be able to connect to WiFi as well. I want to create a wearable that will be able to send a message in regards to how many times the wearable is pressed. This will save the time and trouble of reaching for your phones in times of emergencies. There are many obstacles that I foresee in doing this project. I will somehow need to power this wearable that will allow it to not be intrusive in our clothes.

When I initially tried to use IFTTT with the Adafruit IO, I ran into some issues. For some reason the board was not connecting to the app so when I was trying to pick the specific feed, it ended up giving a “No Options Found” error. But eventually realized it was an issue in my code in the Arduino board which caused there to be an error.

When I got it to work I made it so that if the Data counter was equal or less than 1, then I would respond with a pre-written message “I’ll text you in a bit, I’m busy”.

A networked artwork that I found very inspiring was the “Living Light”. It exists in Seoul, South Korea and was developed by  Soo-in Yang and David Benjamin. Every 15 minutes, the neighborhood panels light up in order of best air quality to worst based on 27 real-time sensors provided by the Korean Ministry of Environment. Neighborhoods are also illuminated if the air quality is better on that particular day than the same time last year and individuals can text message in to check pollution data and see their interaction show up on the map.

The first picture I found in the NYU Bobst Library. It was planted on the ceiling and there were multiple of them throughout the entire library. I am pretty sure that they are WiFi amplifiers of some sorts. They are placed everywhere so that there will be WiFi available throughout the entire library and that the strength of the WiFi remains consistent throughout.

I found this outside one of the school buildings. I am unsure as to what this object does but I am certain it has something to do with the electricity in the vicinity. I was thinking it could be a circuit breaker in regards to the electricity in the public as well. There was a screen tightly locked onto the left side so that no one would be able to tamper with the box.

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I found this in a public park where there were many lights and other electrical objects. I couldn’t locate the object it was powering due to the fact that there were many other wires around. Due to the very obvious “On/Off” switch, I could only imagine that it was powering an electrical device that was in the park. It was connected to the outlet as well so that only further proves my hypothesis.

As I mentioned last week, Jorge and I wanted to connect our micro-controller that would work as a piano. We would use the p5js library in order to get the notes of the piano to come out for each individual switch. However we came across many roadblocks along the way.

Our first major roadblock was that there was something wrong with both of our micro-controllers. When we were trying to upload the aREST code onto our boards but we were both getting errors on BOTH of our boards. When would check our serial monitors, the compiler was just outputting random letters. It would output things such a “cw$ ^42&*&”.

We didn’t think anything was wrong with the board since the code was uploading fine onto our boards. So we

 

For our midterm project, Curtis and I are making a piano that we can control with the microcontroller. Our webpage would have piano keys that would emit a sound when the corresponding physical button is pressed on our circuit. For our webpage, we are using p5js for the piano’s functionality.

Each button in our circuit would be matched up with the corresponding key on the p5 sketch and, in turn, play a sound. For our project, we still need to implement the physical inputs in our p5 sketch. We also want to find a better way for the user to press the keys that isn’t small buttons as well as polish our user interface that will be displayed on the screen. If we have time, we may implement a way for the users to be able to loop sounds within our user interface.

For our midterm project, Jorge and I are making a piano that we can control with the microcontroller. We want our webpage to have piano keys that would emit a sound when the corresponding physical button is pressed on our circuit. For our webpage, we are using p5js for the piano’s functionality.

Each button in our circuit would be matched up with the corresponding key on the p5 sketch and, in turn, play a sound. For our project, we still need to implement the physical inputs in our p5 sketch. We also want to find a better way for the user to press the keys that isn’t small buttons as well as polish our user interface that will be displayed on the screen. If we have time, we may implement a way for the users to be able to loop sounds within our user interface.