User:Versace419/project 1

My Instructor's course page which points to this.

Project Preference

 * Useless Box
 * Electronic Interface
 * Corn Starch

Problem Statement
''In one or two sentences, describe the project that your group will be working on. Identify what CDIO phase (Conceive, Design, Implement, or Operate) your group will complete in this project cycle.''

Project Plan
The plan is to learn how to use Arduino, study the way other useless box have been created and use that knowledge to make our own box. Instead of making the regular box that just turns the switch off once you turn it on. We want to make a box that is fun to play with and can perform a range of functions, such as singing, movement and a surprise function.

Week 1 Narrative
The group is learning and getting hands on with the Arduino. Basic Arduino functions were demonstrated such as lighting up an LED, making an LED fade on and off over a few seconds, and using a button to control the LED.

Week 2 Narrative
A code for controlling the switch on the box was written. How the Arduino will function and its position in the box was demonstrated in a prototype box. The group has concluded on what functions will be added to the box.

Week 3 Narrative
The task this week was to figure out how to make our different functions work on the box. The use a of capacitor was considered because of its ability to store energy and release at a certain time, but it seemed to be to complicated. Since the box was going to use a switch to perform it functions, a code from the arduino.cc site was very helpful (The Button State Change Detection). As long as a push button a switch is working, an action can be performed based on the amount of times a button is pushed. Changing the state of an LED from ON to OFF and BLINKING was demonstrated. Once the use of this code has been perfected, making use of it to perform the main functions of the box will be demonstrated.

Week 4 Narrative
This weeks task was the figure out what kind switch the box was going to use in order to perform it functions. The previous demonstrations for the box's functions were done using a push button. But it was realized that a toggle switch will be most suitable. The problems encountered with the toggle switch was that it was thought to function as push button. When the switch was introduced into the setup, it did not work. After noticing that the toggle switch and push button do not work the same way, the wiring was was changed in order to support the toggle switch.