What?: Synchronous detection spread spectrum
Software: fabModules, Pythin Script, Arduino, Terminal.
Tools: Modela, AVR ISP,
Materials: Phototransistor, Boards
Process:
1. Choosing device: I chose this aprticular sensor because I might try to use it for my final project, I might try to build a kinetic lamp that turns on whe the light in the room is low enough (DETAILS HERE).
My device was quite straight forward to build and everything worked well on the first try so I highly recommend it, the files are as follows: BOARD, COMPONENTS, TRACES, OUTLINE.
2. Milling, Stuffing: SInce we already have some practice milling and stuffing these kinds of boards I will just make note of the new things I learned this time around (for previous milling experiences go HERE, HERE and HERE.
One key part of the milling / stuffing process is to acquire an organized and comprehensive workflow and keep an organized work area, I achieved this by first looking for all my parts and then mounting them on a small surface with some double sided tape, this way you make sure you have everything you need and you have visual reference of how the components look like and so you can figure out what to solder first..
3. Programming: This is where things usually get tricky for me as my Windows 7 computer rutinely refuses to recognize my USB ports, I have yet to find someone who can tell me how this is fixed, I have been trying to program my boards with Arduino and this is what happens:
Comments and possible solutions are greatly welcome.
So I found someone with an Ubuntu based computer and tried programming my board with first try success, I installed Neil's Python script which reads the information coming from the light sensor and displays it in a comprehensible graph, you can find the script for initializing your chip HERE and the Python script HERE
I tried to make the LED blink 2 or 3 times as the reading reached a certain number however this was unsuccessful due to technical difficulties / general lack of knowdledge on how python relates to the board. I am going to continue researching this in one of my other courses for the rest of the semester ( THIS class)
