From working on my project last semester and over winter break I have completed the hardest part of my project. The part being the coding of the keyboard. It is able to play one octave from C to B with sharps and flats. It is also able to switch between octaves on the keyboard both going up and down the piano. I also finished my PCB board to make the wiring flatter than the prototype wiring. I received the PCBs during the first week of school and soldered the parts onto the board.
I continued to work on my website today and refactored the way that it looks
Today I tried to make the code that is on the Arduino more easily readable by someone who may not have a coding background.
Today I worked more on my website and the information that it holds on it.
I worked on my 3D printed case to have it ready to print on Wednesday
I have started printing some of the case parts. The part that I printed today was the top case where I am putting the knobs so I created a 3D printed top to put the knobs into and screw holes for the screws to go through to keep the top case and the bottom of the case together. After I printed the top I found that the knobs fit fine in the holes for them, but the screws do not fit in the holes that I need for them and that I forgot to create holes for the octave keys.
I have changed my website around so that the equalizer bars are centered and not covered by text
I have decided that I want to move my process binder to the website at some point when I figure out how to make different pages on the website
I have decided in the sort of direction I would like to go in for my website. I would like to have different pages on the website and for there to be a drop down navigational menu
I have found the perfect example of the menu I want on codepen, now all I have to do is to refactor it so that I can get it to do what I want it to do.
Today I have printed a prototype part that I wanted for the top of the case. I think that it came out well and I need to redesign the bottom part of the case.
Today I have redesigned the bottom part of the case and now I just need to print the prototype
The question that my partner had was: What do I plan on doing for Artsfest as it relates to my project? This is something that I have thought about but haven’t put such a high priority on it They also had some input that I thought was useful which was: Some kind of timeline for the rest of the semester (improvements, changes, additions) Add more components if time provides And they really wanted to push the fact that ArtsFest should have some sort of plan When I asked them what they would want it to look like they said: Want it to look slick/sleek Make the top curved
I decided to use the Boredom creativity challenge by putting my phone in a different room while I work. It seems to have worked relatively well because I was unable to distract myself with social media and texting.
I think that my first look went pretty well. The only thing that I would have changed would have been the way that I presented my information on the slides.
Today I learned how best to make sure my work is done. Both my roommate and I are in the same working group so it is probably best for us to be accountability partners to make sure that we get our capstones done.
Today I started to work on getting all of my stuff from tumblr to my website’s process binder
I continued to move more and more stuff over but I have not pushed any changes to the website
I got most of the information over but still have not pushed changes
I have edited the website to make it look nicer
I have not been keeping up with my project because I have been working in other work but I have gotten some more things updated
My computer did not want to turn on this morning so if my work is still in my computer without me pushing changes
I still do not have my laptop back so I am doing the most I can with the project which includes figuring out the hardware to use such as bolts and nuts
I finally got my computer back and luckily they were able to backup my entire laptop so I got to keep all of the code I was working on for the website
Updated the process binder for April 1st and started to look at ideas for what to make the process binder caledar look like
Found out that the wire I was going to use for communication with the Arduino Pro Micro does not fit inside the case so I soldered together a smaller version of the cord. In hindsight if I knew this information I would have soldered the male micro USB straight into the female USB B port
Today I worked on coding some of my process binder over from last week. I also tried to figure out a better way to place the knobs so that the wiring takes up less space
Today I went to the machine shop to put the final touches on my keyboard. Turns out when I sealed the whole thing up I forgot to plug in the Arduino so I had to tear it apart and the knobs no longer work so I still have to fix them and put the keyboard back together
This week is ArtsFest so I had to get all of the main parts done for the week. I have not done a whole lot recently because I have been bogged down with work so I will try to get it done by Thursday
Today I went to the Machine Shop and fixed the keyboard and tried to make sure that everything will work for ArtsFest.
Turns out that not everything went according to plan during ArtsFest. The Multiplexer was not working correctly so the first 8 keys on the keyboard were controlled by one button
I went to the machine shop to fix the problem and it turns out that I did not solder the multiplexer completely in place.
Academic showcase went well and all of the keys worked which was my main concern for the showcase. The knobs did not work and I still do not know why they keep breaking.
Today I updated some of my process binder and tried to finish up some finishing touches on the website for now
During my advising conference we talked about how far I had gotten. We went through our learning agreement and decided that some of the statements in there should be used for my poster.
I think that the second look went well and that having my actual keyboard in to show people made it more interesting. When they were actually able to hold the keyboard it their hands it made them ask different questions about them.
In my advising conference we talked about what I would change for the way I did everything. I thought that I probably should have done more stuff earlier on than waiting to fix everything at the last second.
For my capstone I designed a MIDI Keyboard from scratch. The brains of the whole keyboard is a Arduino Pro Micro microcontroller. Both the keys and the case were designed and 3D printed. I felt that engineering was an art form and that I could take what I had learn from scholars and use it to create my capstone.