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• Week 14 - Final Submission (Official)

  Wilson WIjaya • 12/20/2018 at 03:33 • 0 comments

  20/12/18

  Mission Report December 20 2018, our project has been accomplished. See what I did there. Well, in case you didn't get it, it's alright.

  Today we finally managed to finish up everything as much as we could. And I am pretty satisfied with my outcome. A lot better than if I did it all by myself. It's absolutely not the greatest, but I am totally happy with what I and my teammate had accomplished. We did learnt a lot of things ourselves like to be more dedicated with our schedule and keep supporting each other. But nonetheless, well done Wilson Wijaya and Ang Chen Earn.

• Week 13 - Final Artifact (Unofficial)

  Wilson WIjaya • 12/20/2018 at 00:51 • 0 comments

  13/12/18

  Everyone is hustling non-stop throughout the day since the night before. Well, everyone except us. We didn't stay back for the night for our own individual reasons. Ang has high blood pressure and I couldn't work on the wiring if I didn't have enough rest. And so we came back today early in the morning, refreshed and ready.

  We continued working on where we left off. I still cannot figure out what is causing the problem with the music. Someone told me that there might be some power loss or there is an issue with wiring. I had diagnosed these problems earlier. And so I left it alone and in case if the lecturers asked me why you cannot solve it, I'll tell them I have no idea.

  So by the end of the day, everyone's work isn't finished yet. The lecturers are pretty disappointed but gave us some level of mercy to submit it by next week. However, this is under the condition of after the submission, we had to improve this project further and make it presentable to the public in the near future. Well, you take the good and the bad. I'm still grateful about hearing this.

  18/12/18

  I managed to ask my senior to diagnose the problem. He tried to explain to me there is something wrong with the code itself. Like there is a missing condition but I still struggle to understand what does he really meant by that. I allowed him to solve the issue but he simply just gave up. I wouldn't blame him, I would probably gave up earlier myself.

  Jokes aside, I just stick to the setup I have been doing for all this time. 

  19/12/18

  So once again, everyone came in before the deadline. Hustling and bustling. Me and my mate reward ourselves by coming home for the night since we had been coming in diligently every morning.

• Week 12 - Fixing the Mistakes

  Wilson WIjaya • 12/08/2018 at 07:58 • 0 comments

  6/12/18

  Earlier on this day, I further discussed with my partner for solutions that can resolve our critique. Here are a few.

  • The squeeze feedback is not very stable - It's not stable due to the closure of the plastic wrap wrapped around the building.
  • The building is not standing properly - We will use velcrow.
  • Visual may need to improve to make it more interesting - Our initial idea is to make the design somewhat colorful. But we soon realised using all white is more appealing and more interesting.
  • The “head” of the building pops up when squeeze - We stick to our own method by making the plastic wrap to cover the sharp angles.
  • We are also including a banner.
  • The music is not working again. - I haven't figured out why it doesn't work yet.

  • Is will be fun to play with more people - This is because we only can demonstrate two buildings on that day. But we will definitely will make all buildings to work later.

  However, there are some things from our critique that we might not have the precious time to change.
  

  The patterns on the platform is confusing the audience to spin the building - we cannot change this for the time being, so we'll leave it. Besides, it's not a big issue either.

  Consider the space between buildings and buildings, it may be a problem when more people play it - the spacing is a little too late to change since one building takes a lot of time to setup.
  

  ---

  8/12/18

  So today, Ang continues sewing more cloths for buildings while I continue diagnose the music issue since about 2 weeks back. I tried to diagnose the problem by testing the buildings one by one and they seemed to work fine individually. But they wouldn't work properly once they were squeezed together. So instead of wasting time, I soldered the new barometers and LED lights to wires so I wouldn't have to do it on the last minute. 

• Week 11 - The Beta Test

  Wilson WIjaya • 12/02/2018 at 16:33 • 0 comments

  29/11/18

  29th of November is the official day for our beta testing. And in case anyone doesn't know what does beta means, beta means the latest version of a particular product before it's official finalized version, ready to be used. So of course, we do need to get some user feedback to improve our project by implementing user testing. Sadly however, we couldn't finish to do our basic structure to demonstrate a complete user experience.

  We had the base built up to the minimum requirements but the real issue is the light and sound feedback once buildings were squeezed.

  I inserted in the barometer into the sponge (one of the Twin Tower building) and attached the lights around the building. Once I began squeezing for testing, there is no response. No lights, no sounds, nothing. I tried to reconnect the wires again. Still, absolutely no response. Tried to reconnect AGAIN, tested wires with a multi-meter, changed the wires, changed the arduinos AND still no response. It is really strange since I made no changes in the codes whatsoever.

  We were behind schedule compare to everyone else and it's almost impossible to complete our whole beta build by the end of the day. I was very frustrated. So instead of stressing out even more, Ron, my lecturer, advised me to take the day off and come back tomorrow to continue where I stopped.

  ---

  30/11/18
  

  I came back by the morning and had a good conversation with one of my lecturer's son, Jin Yang, who is aspiring to be a future engineer. Despite his age, he knows a bunch of stuffs about what I'm working on, and probably knows more that me. I asked him whether he could help me with my project and he gave me a few Arduino Nano, which is essentially smaller versions of Arduino Leonardo. I started to recall a problem with my current setup.

  On thursday, I am using locally made Arduinos that my Macbook wouldn't allow me to upload the codes to it. So I had to use a friend's PCs to upload the same codes. But there is a big chance that I missed to install 1 or 2 libraries to my friend's computer, otherwise the setup on thursday should be working.

  Anyway, today I uploaded the codes from my computer to the Arduino Nanos, attached it to the circuit setup and voila, the Nanos worked like they should. So now I just have to worry about wiring issues and finishing stitching up the buildings.

  ---

  5/12/18

  Apparently my team wasn't the only one who haven't done the Beta testing. So a bunch of us "leftovers" gather on this day and prepare for our Beta testing. Our setup turned out better compare to our first Alpha but I am confused to see why I cannot get the audio to work properly. I guessed it has something to do with the power supply. But when I thought about it again, it has to be the wiring. And yes, wiring is, by far, the most frustrating thing compare to anything else I have done for this whole project.

  We received some feedbacks from our seniors and here is what they said in general.

  • The squeeze feedback is not very stable
  • The building is not standing properly
  • Visual may need to improve to make it more interesting
  • The patterns on the platform is confusing the audience to spin the building
  • The “head” of the building pops up when squeeze
  • The banner is enough to attract the audience, but need more supporting elements to tell people what to squeeze and where to do it, maybe texture and icons help to make it better
  • The music is not working again
  • Take care of feedback and make it work
  • Consider the space between buildings and buildings, it may be a problem when more people play it
  • Overall the experience is interesting and fun
  • Is will be fun to play with more people

  Me and my partner took all this into consideration. And this is obviously a lot more work than we anticipated.

• Week 10 - BETA (still in-progress)

  Wilson WIjaya • 12/02/2018 at 16:32 • 0 comments

  22/11/18

  One part of our building models requires to be 3D printed. So we took a few days to complete all the 3d printed models. Here are a few examples.

  At the same time, we made the base using plywood.

  (insert base pic)

• Week 9 - BETA (in-progress)

  Wilson WIjaya • 11/18/2018 at 09:19 • 0 comments

  15/11/18

  We soon realised the wood that we bought is a little too thin for our base since it's 0.3 cm thick.

  So we are thinking of sticking them together or get a new one. We decided to stick them together to save time.

  We built our first beta building with sponge and swimming pool noodle to keep it standing.

  I'm still currently working on the music response once the user squeeze the buildings.

  ---

  16/11/18
  

  I spare myself some time to create a new digital 3D model/sketch of our project to see whether it is still workable or not. And here it is.

  My partner and I looked at it and agreed with the sketch. So we proceeded to do new measurements with our new and refined model.

• Week 8 - The Alpha Test

  Wilson WIjaya • 11/18/2018 at 07:19 • 0 comments

  8/11/18

  On this day, we were scheduled to finish up our very first alpha prototype. My partner and I soon realised we were quite left behind from most people around us. So like it or not, we had to hustle tirelessly doing our particular jobs - Ang handles the crafting and I handle the codings.

  This is our cardboard prototype still in the making.

  And this is me testing out the lights and barometer.

  Down bellow is a squishy building based off Kuala Lumpur's tower with LED light strips rolled inside a cloth (used T-Shirt). As you can see, if the user squeezes, lights will be emitted. And the harder the user squeezes, the brighter the light. Cool, huh?
  

  And prototype done.

  Despite our completion, there are a number of flaws that we still had to fix in the near future. Here are the following considerate:

  • The top part of the building does seem to appear much bigger in size than  what it should. This is because thanks to cardboard didn’t have fixed measurement, making it harder to get our measurements accurate.
  • We noticed we didn't utilised the space properly since there are a lot of gaps between buildings. So we're thinking of making our buildings slightly bigger than their initial sizes...
  • ...and that is mainly because we haven't properly discussed about the designs of the buildings, both aesthetically and usability.

  That's just the main problems. We still have to fix other minor problems that we haven't thought about on the spot. But that's alright. We are very optimistic of our final product by the end of the day.

  ---

  13/11/18
  

  After a long break from our Alpha prototype, we decided to go to a nearby hardware store and purchase all the materials necessary for our official exhibit model. This includes:

  • Plywood
  • Longer wires
  • Spray can
  • Velcro
  • Polyethene Foam Pipe
  • And MORE SPONGE!!!

  Once we had bought them, we head back to the lab and further discuss what should we do. We soon realised that when we decided on changing the sizes of the buildings and base means we should re-measure everything. Luckily we realised it earlier since we also had to further refine our project's aesthetic on how can we attract people to come and play with our buildings.

  One particular building, which is the Sultan Abdul Samad Palace, was ditched due to difficulties on matching it with our theme, time and user experience.

  From this...
  

  ...to this.
  So we agreed on a new building called the National Science Center. As you can see, it is a much easier building to work on with a round hemisphere - perfect for the squeezing portion - sitting on top of a cylinder - perfect to set the lights up. And yes, it seems to resemble a UFO.

• Week 7 - Testing Phase 2

  Wilson WIjaya • 11/06/2018 at 06:49 • 0 comments

  1/11/18

  So on this day, we came back to the lab and continue doing where we left of last week. We asked for some further advice from our lecturers, Ron and Lin Yiew, if there's any better solution they can come up to solve some of our problems we have been dealing with such as the light cannot pass through.

  Lin Yiew thinks that instead of putting all the lights all over the building, putting the lights only on the top part of the building, where he suggest would be 3D printed, is a good solution to avoid light blockage inside the fabric. We agreed and took this to consideration.

  After the talk, Ron provided me a smaller barometer - to test it out with two different enclosed mediums - balloon and sponge. They both work however the balloon would need some refining for the construction of our building designs. So I had to discuss this matter further with my partner.

  We had quite a long conversation back and forth and we decided to work during Saturday to come up with a fixed design that we are going to use for our early prototype.

  ---

  2/11/18

  It was raining at that time. We decided to come in the lab and made a 3d model version of our project. 

  ---

  4/11/18
  

  For the whole weekend, we discussed and drew a few sketches that could serve as an early blueprint for our project. This is us figuring out the size an design of the base. Even though we have rectangular base in sketch, we do prefer the 3d model version when we explored cylinder works much better. 

  And the 5 buildings. KL tower,  Petronas Twin Tower, IB Tower, Musem Negara and Sultan Abdul Samad.

  And we had confirmed our material for squeezing -Sponge.

• Week 6 - Prototype Phase 1

  Wilson WIjaya • 10/27/2018 at 07:28 • 0 comments

  25/10/2018

  So on this day, our lecturer, Ron, had ordered a load sensor for me to test and learn how this particular sensor works. Ang was practicing his sewing skills by using the sewing machine provided at the lab. However, this day took a wrong turn that we are not very prepared for.

  First on my part.

  
  

  I placed a heavy object on the load sensor and there's no results or changes on the screen, indicating that it detects some weight changes. But nope, the serial monitor appears to only show one color, which is white.

  The problem isn't really from the product itself. But from the poor documentation (instruction guide) and poor code example that was given/shared by the seller. The documentation provided enough information to let the codes run. But it didn't provide a more in-depth information or, in my case, a documentation if the code didn't run at all.

  The video itself provided didn't really help us a lot either as it's just showing what does the load sensor do. What a waste of time, money and energy.

  ---

  So to not waste any more time, Ron provided me a barometer - a sensor that can detect pressure changes - lying around his desk to test it out whether the barometer is working or not and if we can use it. 

  
  

  I tested it out and the barometer is a complete 180 degree turn from the previous sensor with good documentation and working code example. For a second I thought we have to reconstruct our design from scratch but nope.

  Ang, on the other hand, is having trouble using the sewing machine. The sewing machine kept on acting up strangely as the bottom of the cloth was stitched so poorly. So he just tried to practice sewing the building structure by hand.
  

  ---

  2710/18

  On this day, we tested how much can light pass through fabric/cloth by using one of our old clothes.

  Fabric is not a very good material to let light pass through as you can see in this picture. Yes, in camera it does look quite nice but in reality, the light can only be seen if people come close to the object. This defeats the purpose of our project because the project is about attracting people using bright colorful lights.

  And another problem is this is a bad time to make scheme.

• Week 5 - Final Pitching and Starting to Work on the Physical Stuff

  Wilson WIjaya • 10/21/2018 at 17:02 • 0 comments

  18/10/2018

  We are not only excited to share further refinements and changes we had made for Squeeze KL, but also we were excited to pitch this new "jack-in-the-box" -also known as Crank With Your Friends - idea to our fellow friends and lecturers after countless hours of brainstorming and planning. We are so confident about our new idea to the point we are putting too much work to it, losing our core experience and what kind of feedback we expect from our users. As a result, Crank With Your Friends is completely rejected.

  There is a good news to this because now we just had to focus completely on Squeeze KL and see what and how we can make this idea work.

  After critique session, we gathered and discussed about future plans. We came to realisation that our project is very experimental and we might want to make a few (or many) changes along the way. But for now, we need to consider:

  • what materials we can use for this project?
  • what kind of sensors and where to place them?
  • what is the user flow? (the detailed plan for input, processing, and output)
  • what are the measurements to consider?
  • etc...

  We spent about half a day discussing and preparing what to bring or show by next class.

  22/10/2018

  So on this day, we brought 2 kinds of sponge (medium and hard), some stitched clothing, one with cotton already stuffed inside - the stitched clothing are for building prototypes. I gave a quick test amongst our friends to pick which of the three - medium sponge, hard sponge and cotton - is the most enjoyable material to be squeezed. We expected people to pick the hard sponge however everyone seemed to enjoy the medium sponge more, which means we just need to spend less money now.

  So with that pretty much settled, Ang decided to practice using the sewing machine whilst I, Wilson, wanted to practice his coding by trying out implementing Arduino with a LED strip.

  This part of the project is much more enjoyable that the previous weeks as now we don't have to CRANK our brains to come up with any new ideas.

  And for the moment, this is how our setup will look like more or less.

  We talked with one of our lecture, Ron, and discussed what is the best sensor out of all the sensors that we had thought about. He suggested using a load sensor that comes with the HX711 converter first before trying other sensor alternatives since it's cheap and flexible to use.

  An alternative will be using a barometer pressure sensor - detects atmospheric pressure changes - which also can still work for our project.
  

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