Week 14 - Wildcard

As we are reaching the final spurt for How to Make and finals weeks are killing most of us, I tried to take it relatively low-key this week. Originally, I had thought of doing TinyML on the Xiao ESP32S3 to recognize when a user was calling it, similar to “Hey, Siri.” However, that was just an extra (which I think I could do on my own after HTMAA) and I had really wanted to do what was offered in the other wildcards:

Week 13 - Machining

This week was machining week! My group’s project can be found on the Harvard section’s machine site. My Contributions Involunarily Becoming a Half Section Lead: Brainstorming & Coordination Your browser does not support the video tag. The first two days, the Harvard section spent brainstorming what we were going to do. When I arrived on Wednesday after 5pm, which was when we were supposed to start brainstorming, nothing was going on.

Weeks 11 & 12 - Networking and Application Programming

👉 Try it out Send me a cute message from anywhere I was really looking forward to this week. However, I feel quite exhausted and behind with other HTMAA projects, so I chose to keep it simple this time. I had initially thought to use this week to connect the ESP32-S3 Sense to wifi and resound some OpenAI TTS through the speaker and/or text on the OLED board. However, since I had to switch the ESP32S3 Sense on last week’s board with the SAM-D21 (as only that had a DAC), and, tbh, had not soldered that analog speaker board yet, I wasn’t really motivated to do that.

Week 10 - Output Devices

This week was a prime example of “How to Almost make almost anything.” I spent so much time on this circuit, way more than in any other week. For the AI Pin, I wanted to design an audio circuit. I didn’t realize until later that we could use a simple H bridge to drive a speaker. So instead, I designed a PCB around an entire audio amplifier. Some background research on speakers I found an amazing video where somebody built a functioning speaker inside a walnut!

Week 9 - Input Devices

This week, I developed a new final project idea based on previous ideas for the Flip Disc display and research into pin art over the summer. The idea is to give ChatGPT a 3D Face. Since we’re already at halftime for the class, I will focus on using the following weeks more explicitly for my final project. So for Input week, I decided to focus on one of the two inputs ChatGPT will need: a microphone and a depth sensor (for recognizing when a person is standing in front of it).

Week 8 - Large Format Machining (CNC)

Week 8 is a bit of a tragedy. :( I was really looking forward to this week as my friend Treyden had hyped it up so much. But unfortunately, the CNC machine was not delivered to the Harvard site in time, so we had to postpone it… and week by week passed by without the machine getting ready. When it finally was ready, it was almost right in Machining week, which was also close to finals, so I didn’t have time to do it.

Week 7 - Molding & Casting

Oh my, this week I was a bit overambitious again! Molding and casting got me excited since I felt it to be an underexplored (by me), or underused field - and seems so playful! I did learn, however, that this week’s topic is just really an excuse to practice 3D modeling and CNC milling. Usually, the order of this week is flipped with the “Computer Controlled Machining” (or “Make Something Big”) week.

Week 6 - Electronics Production

This week is a continuation of the EDA week. PCB Making Training at the MIT Eletronics Mezzanine Milling with Bantham Tools Project Manus is great. They have at least 4 working PCB Milling Machines at the Electronics workshop. They are all Bantam Tools Desktop PCB Milling Machines. They are very easy to use, and the software is very intuitive. You can find the instructions here. Soldering Soldering my LED circuit proved a little difficult.

Week 5 - Electronics Design

This week was dedicated to learning how to use Electronics Design Tools. I am completely new to electronics. Fortunately, however, I had worked ahead a little bit and visited the PCB Making Training at the MIT Eletronics Mezzanine, part of Project Manus (their student-run makerspaces). KiCAD KiCAD is an open-source EDA software. It is a suite of programs that allows you to design schematics, PCBs, and generate Gerber files. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Week 4 - 3D Scanning and Printing

This week, we delved into 3D printing. SLA Printing As I wanted to be ahead of the game and work with SLA printers, I took the training at the student-run MIT Makerspace The Deep on Thursday. The Deep has a Formlabs Form 3 printer, which is a resin-based SLA printer. I had briefly worked with a sterolithography bioprinter before (actually developed the frontend for it), but hadn’t used it for simple, everyday objects.

Week 3 - Embedded Programming

This week we took an early dive into embedded programming. We were introduced to two microcontrollers from the Raspberry Pi family: the Seeed Studio Xiao RP2040 and the Raspberry Pi Pico. The assignment was to write program for a microcontroller development board to interact with local input &/or output and communicate (remotely). Setting up the Xiao RP2040 I started with the Seeed Studio Xiao RP2040 and the Arduino IDE. The Xiao has a neopixel LED and the default program let’s it blink it different colors.

Week 2 - Computer Controlled Cutting

I had lasercut before so this was a refresher. It’s good that it was this week since I joined in week 3 so didn’t have time to make anything more complicated. First, I cut some shapes from my favorite hackerspace, Noisebridge in SF. Parametric Construction Kit However, the assignment focused on cutting something parametric, which I hadn’t done yet. It was more tricky for me as a Fusion beginner than I thought.

Week 1 - CAD

I joined the class later so had to catch up on the CADing. I drew some variations of a Star Trek badge and made it in Fusion 360 way later in the class. I watched some of the Fusion tutorials that Alfonso had suggested, and they were indeed really god. I traced the outline of a Star Trek badge and extruded it. I tried various Star Trek shapes to see which ones I liked the most.