User:Epcole/enes100/illuminate clothing

Link to project T2C team page.

Give instructor top 3 project choice list

 * Power Projects
 * Illuminate Clothing
 * Electric Car

Write problem statement
Illuminate a shirt using LEDs and EL wires controlled with Arduino Lillypad Microcontroller.

Assign Task1
Study logic gates and find out how they can be implemented in LED lighting sequence.

Compare actual work done to Task1
Found ways to use logic gates to light up different led sequences but it required 2 inputs. Also looked at comparators as another option.

Week1 Narrative
The goal was to light multiple led lights on a single Arduino output in different sequences using logic gates. Using combinations of and and or logic gates, I was able to light multiple leds and have them go on and off in different sequences. The problem I encountered however, was that it required 2 outputs and also required a complex electronic circuit which could get bulky. The other solution I came across was using op amps as comparators. These were simple circuits requiring few small components. They could also be controlled on a single signal since a steady voltage from a battery can be used as the reference.

Week1 Peer Review
Go to each team mates weekly summary wiki page. Read their activities and narrative. Then go the associated discussion page. Say something positive on this page. Try some constructive criticism. Add your name and 1sfoerster 13:32, 28 August 2011 (UTC) to create a time and date stamp. Create a new category if another team mate has already commented here.

Assign Task2
Circuit for alternating LEDs without using op amps

Compare actual work done to Task2
Discovered multivibrator circuit for alternating LED lights.

Week2 Narrative
Last week Truongdat wrote a short program to blink leds. We connected 2 leds and they both blinked simultaneously. He would like to have those leds to alternate instead so I needed to find a solution. While trying to learn how to use transistors to power different leds, I came across the Astable Multivibrator which consists of two transistors alternating and switching between two leds. Multivibrator could be a much simpler solution and can be made very compact and only requires the output of Arduino to operate. More information can be found [|here.]

Assign Task3
Record what you are planning on doing for the team during the weekend between week2 and week3 of the project here.

Compare actual work done to Task3
Professor Foerster informed us about using a decoder to light multiple leds and we put together a circuit and tested it.

Week3 Narrative
Facing the same issue of maximizing the number of leds we could control on a single Arduino Lillypad unit. This week we were introduced to the Decoder, which takes a combination of 3 inputs and turns it into 8 outputs, which would allow us, if we use only these, to control up to 32 leds +1 more output available on the arduino. I discussed with Dat on figuring the in/out combinations that the decoder has and decided to build a test circuit and send each combination of inputs to check its output. What I found out was that the decoder only turns off 1 led at a time. This could limit us in our light patterns if we decide to go with a complex arrangement.

Assign Task4
Prepare progress report for presentation. Start planning circuits in accordance with dress layout.

Compare actual work done to Task4
Rationalize differences

Week4 Narrative
Upload photos to wikimedia. Upload video to youtube. Convert all spreadsheets, documents, and presentations to wiki format and create wiki subpage of your page for each of them. Link to them here in a narrative that tells a story. High light the problems (engineering problems) you had and how you solved them.

Week4 Peer Review
Go to each team mates weekly summary wiki page. Read their activities and narrative. Then go the associated discussion page. Say something positive on this page. Try some constructive criticism. Add your name and 1sfoerster 13:33, 28 August 2011 (UTC) to create a time and date stamp. Create a new category if another team mate has already commented here.

Complete Project Page
Follow the "project done" format.

Start Next Project Week0 activities
During this week you will perform the week0 activities of the next project.