This week our individual assignment was a group project, involving everyone in the Harvard lab: design a machine that includes mechanism + actuation + automation; build the mechanical parts and operate it manually; document the group project and your individual contribution

I contributed to the group effort by programming our boards with firmware via Atmel, establishing consistent serial communication, and also helping out with the post-processing of the milled plastic components early on, the tedious work of shaving off the excess plastic.

To program the firmware, I followed the steps Jake outlined here. I used the Ateml Studio GUI together with the Atmel ICE programmer (pictured). It's also worth noting that Rob recommended we use 20V of power when programming the boards. When powered, one of the board's green LEDs will remain lit. When programmed successfully, another LED will blink more or less rapidly. I noticed the Router blinked slower than the other boards, although I'm not sure why.

As for the serial communication, Soumya and I were experiencing inconsistent behavior, not getting a reply. Others group members had experienced similar issues earlier. I discovered that when we clicked the tiny reset button on the board and tried the network test again, everything worked fine. Soumya and I suspect that the reset button pulls a specific pin high or low on the router's XMEGA, and that turning the router off by unplugging it leaves that pin floating instead of letting it go back to the state the firmware expects it to be in.