MY FINAL PROJECT

A CONNECTED BIRDHOUSE

What I used to do my final project
Machine:
- The big CNC
- Roland monoFab SRM-20, to mill the PCB

Material:
- Plywood
- PCB, and electronic components
- input sensors

Softwares:
- Rhino3D, 3D design software
- Vcarve Pro, software to prepare files for CNC
- Eagle, for the PCB designing
- ArduinoIDE, for the programming
- Processing, for the programming
Here are the presentation files for my final project:
- My Final Project presentation
- My Final Project Video

Here are the other generated files for my final project:
- Files about the structure (Rhino, dxf, crv, tap formats)
- Files about the Electronic production (PCB)
- Files about the Electronic programming (last version of program, for 6 nests)

Here are the outputs from the 2nd Evaluation Round:
- Files about the Electronic production (PCB) of my Custom Board (.sch, .brd, .png, .rml)
- Files about programming (3 Processing programs : 1 nest, 2 nests and 6 nests versions)
- Final Project - 2nd Round - burning and testing my Custom Board --- Video
- Final Project - 2nd Round - running my program on my Custom Board --- Video

ABOUT MY FINAL PROJECT

INTRO

My project is a BirdHouse with several nests, and this BirdHouse is a connected object.
The aim is to be able to follow the activity inside the BirdHouse with sensors.
And to read this activity on a Interface.

MATERIAL

To do my final project I need following materials:
- Some marine plywood for the structure
- Some electronic components,
* including sensors:
. motion sensor for presence of birds
. water level sensor for water tank
. ultrasonic sensor for seeds tank)
* including Wireless (Wifi, and/or Zwave)

PLANNING

Step 1 (June 2016):
. build the infrastructure
. build and test the electronics (at least with the motion sensors, and with wire connection - no wireless -)
. build a V1 of interface

Step 2 (End of 2016):
. add sensors (water level sensor for water tank, ultrasonic sensor for seeds tank)
. include Wireless (Wifi, and/or Zwave)
. add autonomous powering system
. update interface (V2)

STATUS ON TASKS

3D design for the infrastructure
- 3D draft: DONE
- 3D design on Rhino3D: DONE

Big CNC to mill the infrastructure
Milling plywood on CNC: DONE
Mounting the infrastructure: DONE
Protecting the infrastructure (resin, varnish): DONE

PCB design, and production
Design of PCB: DONE
Milling of PCB: DONE
Soldering: DONE

Programming of microcontroller (V1)
Programming: DONE
Tests: DONE
Validation: DONE

Interface programming (V1)
Programming: DONE
Tests: DONE
Validation: DONE

Programming of microcontroller (V2)
Programming: TO BE DONE
Tests: TO BE DONE
Validation: TO BE DONE

Interface programming (V2)
Programming: TO BE DONE
Tests: TO BE DONE
Validation: TO BE DONE



DETAILS

The idea

First idea from my youngest daughter

Second idea from my oldest daughter

Third idea from my son

My compilation of the children's draws

The final project - principles 1/2
More than a simple birdhouse
A block of flats for birds
Structure 100% done in V1

The final project - principles 2/2
A connected birdhouse
With a dashboard app (remote in V2, local in V1)
to follow activity in the nests (in V1)
And to know the level of tanks (water, feeds) (in V2)

Building the infrastructure

Designing the pieces in Rhino3D
All the design is done in 2D, using Rhino software
A lot of joints, so I have to take care of the joint "consistency"
Here are the rules I followed when I did my Rhino file:
- usage of layers: 1 layer in Rhino per Job with the CNC + 1 layer for the board + 1 layer for my joints models and the Mill Bit
- the mill bit I decided to use is a 6mm diameter
- the circular arcs of the mill bit on my schema are 6.05 mm (not 6.00)

Milling with the Big CNC
A the pieces are on a single 240cm x 120cm plate

Starting the assembly
To check the joints

The birdhouse is mounted
All the joints were OK :-)

Doing the electronic

As I'm only able to program via Arduino IDE, the PCB I will use is a Satshakit.
Here is the Satshakit documentation, and here is the Satshakit GitHub page.

Designing a Satshakit

Working with Fabmodule

Milling with the Roland MonoFab SRM-20

PCB Board achieved

Doing the interface

The interface is showing me if there is some motion inside the nests of my birdhouse.
For this I have 1 motion sensor in each nest of my birdhouse.
The display is a box showing the 6 nests of my birdhouse

Programming interface with Processing

Testing Motion Sensor connected to Satshakit

My interface : no activity in my BirdHouse

My interface : there is a bird in Nest 1 !

Physical integration of the motion sensor in the nest

With the door closed, still need some tests and tuning to find the good physical position for the sensor


2ND ROUND

Doing a custom board

My custom Satshakit

For the 2nd round I did a custom satshakit that includes:

  • a 3 pins connection (pin/gnd/vcc) for the 6 motion sensors
  • a 6 PIN header for ISP to connect my FabISP to program the board, using standard cable
  • a double LDO system (3.3V, and 5V)
  • I keep all the other pins as it is to be able to use it as an arduino
  • I added some text on it to reference GND/VCC or -/+ notably
See all the files (.scr, .sch, .brd, .png, .rml) in the ouputs at the top of the page.

Working on Eagle: modifying all the pads, adding pads for GND/VCC for sensors

Working on adding the 6 PIN header for ISP
not easy to route the Reset, a 0 ohm resistor was necessary to pass upper the GND.

Working on adding connection for the external battery, like a 9V battery, with 2 LDO systems, 3.3V and 5V, in order to be able to select (with a simple jumper) the VCC_Out for the whole board.
The idea is notably to be able to use the card in 3.3V in case of some attached component cannot work with 5V (like ESP8266 for instance that I planned to add in the future to connect via WiFi to my house)
In eagle, I had to import a Library from a Script file (.scr) that I uploaded from Farnell website, indeed I ordered my components for this board on Farnell, and LDO was not the ones from the FabAcademy list
This specific library is also in the files in my outputs

Here is the board view of my Custom Card

Milling the board on the Roland SRM20
Result is great, except the route of the ground below LDO which was connected to VCC_In, a cutter was useful to correct the trace after production :-)

Now soldering the components on the PCB
Here is the result

Connecting FabISP (to burn the board),
FTDI (to program it and for the Processing => Firmata => Arduino flow),
2 motion sensors for my tests

Burning card with FabISP, testing a simple Blink program on it
Then pusching StandardFirmata program from Arduino IDE
And then pushing my Processing program
Everything is working!
See following video...

Video

Burning and testing my Custom Board

Video

Running my program on my Custom Board