Applications and Implications

This week is about designing applications and interfaces. The assignment task is to:

assignment: propose a final project that integrates the range of units covered, answering:

what will it do?
who's done what beforehand?
what materials and components will be required?
where will they come from?
what parts and systems will be made?
what processes will be used?
what tasks need to be completed?
what questions need to be answered?
what is the schedule?
how much will it cost?
how will it be evaluated?

1. What will it do?

The objective of the final project is to design a wall sized clock, which displays time (albeit with limited resolution) as well as serve the purpopse of lighting up otherwise dull outdoors.

2. Who's done what beforehand?

The concept (idea) is not very new. I am sure such designs do exist, but I have not been able to identify any such products on the internet thus far. The closest thing which I found are Adafruit Neopixels . WS28xx series addressable LEDs are a very interesting and low cost solution; however they are primarily used to indoor decoration . Although both models are visually very appealing yet are limited in their dimensions and not suitable for outdoor installation.

3. What materials and components will be required?

The detailed bill of materials is tabulated below:

4. Where will they come from?

Majority of the electronics components are already available in the lab inventory. I had to arrange special LEDs, twisted pair cable and neccessary connectors. The description is also provided in the table above.

5. What parts and systems will be made?

This project mainly involves electronic design, 3D modeling and printing of casing and precision laser cutting of the diffuser material. The details of items to be produceds and procedures followed are described below:

5.1 Electronics Systems Design

The project is based on a wired network of circuits. The interconnect is based on I2C protocol. An RTC is used as a reliable source of time information which is then fed to the micro-contoller systems. These systems also include Mosfet circuitary driving high power LEDS as required.

5.2 3D Design of Dails:

The dials are essential component of the project as they provide asthetic look as well as provide casing to the digital circuit. Although due to time limitations I have not been able to do as much of experimentation with the size and layout of the systems as I would have liked to do.

5.3 Design of Diffuser Cover:

Diffuser cover is an essential component of the dials as they ensure that the light spreads accross the surface evenly and does not have hot/dark spots.

6. What processes will be used? / 7. Tasks to be completed?

Eagle PCB design for slave modules and mosfet power modules
Preparing files to mill: MS Paint, FabModules
Soldering, testing and commissioning.
Preparing dials using Fusion 360 and post processing them for a print job
Coding with arduino for design validation
Experimenting with different types of diffuser materials
Preparing diffuser layout in Rhino
Laser cutting diffusers as per requirement
Preparing i2c bus and power network
Create mobile phone app to interface to the system for run-time monitoring and control
CNC mill the board for dials and power and network cables
Putting components together
(Time permitting) Implementing scripts to create visual effects!

8. What questions need to be answered?

There are a number of uncertainities , challenges that I need to face:

What is the maximum physcial dimension of the network possible given limitations on power supply and limited current on i2c network.
How bright should be the LEDs so that they are visible in broad day light.
What should be dimension of dials so that they are distinctly visible from atleast 10 meters

9. What is the schedule?

I have been working on the background check, electrical system design, 3d design of dials and types of diffuser material. In the following few days I will be doing the following tasks.

Milling the power and I2C slave boards (week-1 24/05/2017 - 31/05/2017)
Printing the dials (week-1 24/05/2017 - 31/05/2017)
Creating the electrial bus for power and data (week-2 01/06/2017 and 02/06/2017 )
Writing code for master and slave units (week-2 03/06/2017 and 08/06/2017 )
Integration and debugging (week-3 09/06/2017 - 15/06/2017)

10. How much will it cost?

The total cost of the complete system is to the tune of 250 USD. The most expansive component of this system is super bright leds, twisted pair wires and the dupont connectors.

11. How will it be evaluated?

Upon successful completion this clock will be up for display. Although this will be by no means a commercial grade solution but its certainly a proof of concept. With a little bit of deliberation the scope and capabilities of the system can be tuned up.

Downloads

find the bill of materials here.