User:Senami/ENES-100/Project 1: Bicycle turn signal

Week0 My First Task
I looked up different examples of already made turn signals and printed the main parts of a bicycle.

Week1 Narrative
Our first project in ENES 100 consisted of making a commercial turn signal for a bicycle. I was assigned with: Arien Motaher, Asad Gillani, Carlos Fernandez, and Kevin Szostak. We were tasked with this dilemma of making the everyday commercial bicycle safer to use for the average individual. Bicycle injuries and deaths in the US account for 8 million each year with both adolescents (ages 15-24) and adults (aged 45 and older) at the highest risk for death. We wanted to make a turn signal that would have a left and right turning signal mounted on the back of the bicycle. Our group divided the project into 5 different parts:

-Housing

-Arduino/Coding

-Interface

-Wiring -Lighting

Week2 Narrative
During the second week of bicycle turn signal project, I was tasked with developing the housing for the arduino. I searched around for many different types of bikes and already existing models of the turn signals on bikes. Since I had some familiarity with coding, I checked the code used for many of an arduino's functions and concluded that it closely resembled the C language. In my engineering notebook, I went to measure the reflector off of my own personal bike. The reflector was 1 15/16" x 2 15/16" which was perfect for the breadboard to fit on. I discussed my measurements with the group and we all decided to a compromise, that we would fit the arduino onto 3.6" x 1.8" x 5" box.

Week3 Narrative
On the third week of the Bicycle turn signal project, all of the team(including myself) began to research shapes we could use for the turn signal. After much debating and searching, we finally began to trickle down to a conclusive prototype. After we made our decision on the shape of the prototype, it was decided that we would need at around 2.5 feet of wiring to get from the housing, around the frame of the bike, to finally get to the side of handlebars where the user-interface buttons would be located. This week we started to begin the build on the prototype, by working on a bike reflector and seeing how placing LEDs will work. After drilling several holes into the reflector, the LEDs seemed too small for an incoming car/biker to see from a distance, which makes it a pointless addition. The whole team was confused and irritated, and it felt like we reached another impasse. After much more debating and irritation, we found something that seemed to aid us in our predicament. In an old corner of the room we found lego pieces left over from old projects, which seemed useful to the current project. If we somehow stuck the lego pieces with an adhesive to a board, it would serve as a superior means of shelter for the LEDs.

Week4 Narrative
During this week, I performed research on the engineering program, SketchUp, and found out different methods to aid in the design process of the housing.