Holy Moly it's been two weeks since I wrote anything. Alas I have more time! Let's break down what happened.
First Senior Design Ended. I will post pics as soon as can find them. I spent the most on the device and therefore it is mine. What I will do with it remains to be seen. We finished a few days ahead of schedule and fixed the last thing a few hours before our presentation. We were last to present and went through the whole thing reather quickly. The questions asked were very good. The esteemed professor Armstrong was at our presentation and grilled us somewhat. Our demonstration worked flawlessly. and the perfect moment when we hooked our project up to the router to my laptop forming a little tiny network and controlled it via the ethernet connection was (I don't know how to express it exactly) pure engineering awesomeness. They were all very pleased. Three of the group went our to celebrate and the final one went home.
Of the four in our group three worked hard. One had a child a week before the project was due and this was not entirely her fault but we became very annoyed when her stuff stopped working and she left claiming she had to "Go". We spent four hours troubleshooting her block before it began to breathe again.
IT worked during the presentation and we all help our breaths for a moment while the sensors were activated.
Flex sensors I learned cannot be continuously deflected or they will lose their springlike qualities. I learned this the hard way and though they worked in the end they were only able to tell us if it were full or empty. not 1/2 full or whatnot. Next time I'll use something different.
The Arduino Mega board almost melted down on the eve of the last night. I had to buy a back up which I will return as I already have a mega and have no need for another.
Senior design (EE595) was not technically difficult but just a lot of busy work. If you undertake it I have a few good ideas for you to contemplate before you really dive into it.
First: use what you are comfortable with. The semester is no time to learn a whole new microprocessor or language. I used an Arduino because I had one and was able to play with it for a while before using it on the project.
Next figure out what you can do with whatever you are comfortable with. Look around the internet for example code and if you can find some use that device and slap it on your compiler. The whole Idea of the project is to build something unique and document it. going way out to left field is where so many groups failed. Later on during your own time, try out the new designs, chips and code. but during SD stick to what works. You will have enough problems as it is.
Don't wait till the last minute to buy and assemble. it make cost you a few extra bucks buying a part or two that you didn't use but waiting until two weeks left to assemble the device leaves little room for error. when you choose your project have it all researched out. with a good idea if not a concrete one on how to do what you want. this will entail you to think a lot about your design before the class starts but trust me It's worth it!!!
Lastly stay organized and keep up to date with the paperwork. Getting behind will kill you faster than a superbug. A few groups had to finish their paperwork after they presented which turned into a nightmare.
Tomorrow, my first day as a free man I am getting up and going to a VHDL seminar to re-hash my skills and sharpen any dull knives. I will be doing a lot of this later on but it's never too late to re kindle older knowledge. Wish me luck :)
First Senior Design Ended. I will post pics as soon as can find them. I spent the most on the device and therefore it is mine. What I will do with it remains to be seen. We finished a few days ahead of schedule and fixed the last thing a few hours before our presentation. We were last to present and went through the whole thing reather quickly. The questions asked were very good. The esteemed professor Armstrong was at our presentation and grilled us somewhat. Our demonstration worked flawlessly. and the perfect moment when we hooked our project up to the router to my laptop forming a little tiny network and controlled it via the ethernet connection was (I don't know how to express it exactly) pure engineering awesomeness. They were all very pleased. Three of the group went our to celebrate and the final one went home.
Of the four in our group three worked hard. One had a child a week before the project was due and this was not entirely her fault but we became very annoyed when her stuff stopped working and she left claiming she had to "Go". We spent four hours troubleshooting her block before it began to breathe again.
IT worked during the presentation and we all help our breaths for a moment while the sensors were activated.
Flex sensors I learned cannot be continuously deflected or they will lose their springlike qualities. I learned this the hard way and though they worked in the end they were only able to tell us if it were full or empty. not 1/2 full or whatnot. Next time I'll use something different.
The Arduino Mega board almost melted down on the eve of the last night. I had to buy a back up which I will return as I already have a mega and have no need for another.
Senior design (EE595) was not technically difficult but just a lot of busy work. If you undertake it I have a few good ideas for you to contemplate before you really dive into it.
First: use what you are comfortable with. The semester is no time to learn a whole new microprocessor or language. I used an Arduino because I had one and was able to play with it for a while before using it on the project.
Next figure out what you can do with whatever you are comfortable with. Look around the internet for example code and if you can find some use that device and slap it on your compiler. The whole Idea of the project is to build something unique and document it. going way out to left field is where so many groups failed. Later on during your own time, try out the new designs, chips and code. but during SD stick to what works. You will have enough problems as it is.
Don't wait till the last minute to buy and assemble. it make cost you a few extra bucks buying a part or two that you didn't use but waiting until two weeks left to assemble the device leaves little room for error. when you choose your project have it all researched out. with a good idea if not a concrete one on how to do what you want. this will entail you to think a lot about your design before the class starts but trust me It's worth it!!!
Lastly stay organized and keep up to date with the paperwork. Getting behind will kill you faster than a superbug. A few groups had to finish their paperwork after they presented which turned into a nightmare.
Tomorrow, my first day as a free man I am getting up and going to a VHDL seminar to re-hash my skills and sharpen any dull knives. I will be doing a lot of this later on but it's never too late to re kindle older knowledge. Wish me luck :)
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