User:Kszostak2139/ENES 100/ENES 100 Project 1

Week1 Narrative
My first project for ENES-100 is being tasked with finding out how to make a bicycle turn signal.

What we first discussed was what we all wanted to see come out of our finished project being we agreed we wanted something the didn't have to look nice but had to be functional. Since we were starting off with a prototype we knew it would be ruff but some other things we wanted to include once we got a working model was that it would be able to work on any bike.

We decided we needed a power source that was a single 9v battery running one( possibly two) Arduinos, LED board that would be able to light up in the form of a left and right arrow all housed inside some water proof case or make something from the 3D printer. We also addressed the fact that not all bikes are the same so will need some kind of push button control that can be mounted on the handle bars of almost any bike and not get in the way of riding. Also, whichever housing option we used needed to be very durable in case the bike it dropped and waterproof if possible within our time constraint.

Week2 Narrative
During week two I found out that the company called "otter" makes small waterproof cases that will fit an Arduino and power sourcee (i.e. 9v Battery). The dimensions of the one that seemed to be able to hold the LEDs and breadboard, power source and Arduino would be the one we either buy or try to replicate. The box would need to have the dimensions of about 3.6in x 5in x 1.8in.

The next part we needed to look at was durability which we know the otter box would fulfill but were not as sure about the 3D printing. I have gauged the plastic for the "otter box" to be about 1/8in, which I have determined from this information that the 3D printer will do the same and can make a box with the minimum measurements that the housing will need.

Resources:http:

http://www.adafruit.com/products/340

Week3 Narrative
During this week of the project we finally had all the research we needed to draw up how we wanted our prototype to look. We looked online at what types of boxes were already made with the 3D printer that fit our dimensions so that it could be used as housing for the battery, Arduino and LEDs/bread board. We then measured how well it would fit to the bike and determined we would need about 2-3ft of wire to get from wire to get from where the housing, then the wire would follow the frame and end at the handle bars where our two push buttons and devices to hold them with would be.



All together what seemed pretty straight forward, building turn signals, turned into a great deal of work. We decided not to use Sketchup or CAD to draw up our project because each bike is different and what were making has no moving parts just light bulbs that have electricity passed through them. Next week we will try and finish our prototype by printing our housing on the 3D printer, since this week it was having problems keeping itself at the right melting temperature. If it is not working by next week we will have to come up with another option for housing the Arduino, LEDs/bread board and power source.

Week4 Narrative
During this week our group decided to go with a bigger platform for our LED lay out. We determined that the factory OEM cover for the brake reflector that came with the bike might be hard to see with the few amount of LEDs that can fit inside the housing and the contrasting colors (i.e. red/greed). To make it easier to see the lights we made a new housing out of the lego pieces for robots for a temporary period of time until we order or print our housing that will hold the power source, LEDs and arduino.



Throughout the week we worked on soldering the necessary wires to the LEDs, shrink wrapped the exposed ends and placed the LEDs into the lego covers. Once everything looked nice and clean we needed to make sure it would work and from learning house to make a light blink during the first week of class we thought it would be easy and were so very wrong, so while we finish up the housing we will need to find or code a program for the arduino(s) that will make the LEDs blink for a set period of time from two switches that can be mounted on the handle bars of the bike. We are trying to keep everything easily removable because we want this in the end to be able to fit onto any bike.

Our main goals we are trying to accomplish are to have a bike turn signal that blinks for a set period of time and then goes off in you forget or are not sure we wanted it to turn off, we want it to be durable and easily removable so the power source, LEDs and arduino(s) are all going into one rugged container that will have wires running from the housing to the push buttons mounted on the handle bars that will control the LEDs.

However, we have now determined our original plan to use just one arduino will most likely not work because there are too many wires and not enough connectors on the arduino so we will be working on next week a way to overcome this but trying to keep it all easily removable. One idea that is at that top of our list is have two arduino's running so that there will be enough spaces. Next week we will be finishing up our second prototype for the turn signal and then if that is accomplished we will determine if the wiring is possible for two arduino's because the middle two bars with LEDs that are not curved will need to light up with both switches.

Week5 Narrative
During this week we decided to work more on the wiring formations and programs used to control the LEDs. First we went though different ideas for new types of wiring because our initial design wouldn't fit in our housing very well. We had two new ideas, the first was to connect all the negative wires together and solder one wire to them. Then, our design wouldn't need 36 wires to connect into the arduino, we would only need 6. Our second design was to strip a wire down completely and solder all the negative and positive prongs to one wire, then dip it in a rubber coating to prevent short circuiting.

The first idea seemed to work really well we just had trouble with soldering that many wires together without some fusing to each other so were going to need to make all new wires for this new design. Our second idea seemed to work well in theory but once we tried it we realized it was going to be a lot of work to connect all the wires that way and the wires would be on the side our prototype but we needed them to be in the center for them to connect to the arduino and fit in the housing.

Next week we will be testing which type of switch we will use to control the LEDs and the code to run the switch. Also, we will hopefully be getting our new LEDs that are multicolored and will be able to put together something that is almost ready to put on a bicycle.