• Thursday March 21st

    Raphaël • 03/21/2024 at 17:29 • 0 comments

    To summarize, each log will be posted on Thursdays since it's the day we have class and gather to review our progress, essentially a meeting. For example, this week, our dear Romain, as well as Rachel, have started a prototype each on their own:

    Consisting of a LED Matrix (slightly oversized), an ESP 32 that serves as the bridge between our Matrix and the phone* (I'll explain the functionality later), and also displays whether the ESP is connected and a battery image to visualize where it will be placed. There's also a photoresistor to adjust brightness.

    On the other hand, Florian has created about twenty 8 by 8 drawings to populate the library we'll offer to users for pre-made drawings.

    Finally, on my end, I've started designing the website, with a loading screen, homepage, and a few menus.

    *Regarding the ESP functionality, we've had debates on how our project should communicate with the web page. Our latest decision was to connect the ESP to the phone's network to always stay connected and receive messages at any time.

    During the session, we began programming the website in HTML/CSS and brainstormed on further improvements and additions to the project's electronics and functionalities.

    For the next session, we will continue with the web design and proceed with designing the PCB for the matrix.

  • Thursday March 14

    Raphaël • 03/14/2024 at 11:08 • 0 comments

    So last week in class, we thought of many projects like something that uses a Kinect, a furniture piece that makes delightful cocktails, but at the end of the class, we decided on something that could be useful for our international semester.

    Just in case, I will provide a little summary of the project. The principle is to send 8 by 8 drawings to someone else anywhere in the world on an LED matrix.

    For now, we have started listing the features that we want to include in the product:
    - WiFi connection: WEB SERVER TRANSMISSION -> Phone connection, sending SSID, PASSWD -> Connection | UPGRADE.
    - BACKUP? SD card module.
    - Power on: resistive sensor.
    - LED strip around the casing.
    - Integrated WEB page -> Drawing area, Drawing library, WiFi settings.
    - Use of JSON to send data to the ESP (JSON sends records constantly for updates).

    We also have some remaining questions to address:
    - Full transparent resin casing or casing with a strip around it?
    - How do we turn it on?
    - How do we charge it? USB C
    - Make or buy the charging module?
    - Adaptive lighting or a button for brightness?

    And to conclude the class, each of us has been assigned tasks to do for the next session (yes, I didn't specify, but it's a group project).