The parts came in…!!! Well most of them did… Over the past week I have been able to gather the vast majority of the parts necessary for the wearable component of my project. When I was not physically making I was focusing on the code component.
Research and Inspiration
On the days I was not in class for 11 hours this week I focused on finding inspiration and educational materials for the coding element of this project. After spending an hour or so watching some Shiffman videos on the Coding Train YouTube Channel I was directed to Matthew Kepler’s Vimeo playlist on Data Visualization with Processing. These 40 or so videos are providing me with the knowledge and inspiration I needed to address the data side of this project.
As I continue to look for ways to visualize this sensor data in Processing I’m finding more and more inspiration on Instagram. I’ve included some particular accounts that I have started to follow below that I know will inspire me to create something beautiful:
And #CreativeCoding, #GenerativeArt
Process and Progress
The second week of Project 1 has brought some considerable progress and I’m very happy with where I currently stand!
Physical Components + Arduino
This week was soldering heavy and it took me a while to get everything dialed. I’m 85% of the way done with having a fully assembled wearable device.
- Female headers soldered to the 2 Adalogger microcontrollers
- Male headers soldered to the 2 9DOF IMU sensors
- Successful test of all sensors providing data through the Adalogger microcontrollers with output to Serial Monitor
- Wires soldered to 4 sqaure FSR sensors
- Acquired 2 Featherwing Protoboards for next step in wearble assembly
Processing
There were days this week when I had to wait on additional parts so I turned my focus to successfully importing CSV data into Processing. Although I used a sample CSV file, it was in the same format at the final dataset so I’m able to work with the array values and start to assign them to certain parts of the visualization program.
- Sample CSV created with all potential data in proper integer and float format
- Initial Processing code that successfully imports CSV data and splits it into two-dimensional array
- Additional search for inspiration on ways to visualize the dataset
Reflection
There is a little bit of my process included in these next paragraphs but I felt it was necessary to truly get the point across!
The majority of my work this week was on soldering all of the components together. Before this project I had soldered two times; and there definitely wasn’t a high level of difficulty or risk associated. As I was getting ready to do the soldering for this project I felt anxious becuase from what I read some of the soldering I was going to be doing required a decent level of proficiencny. Something I didn’t feel I possessed at this time. However, I am happy to report that I didn’t screw anything up too bad. The soldering of the headers onto the microcontrollers and IMU sensors went pretty smoothly. When it came to soldering the leads on the FSR pads that’s when the real challenge arose. I had arranged some time with Kristin to have her show me what to do and she ended up only having 5 minutes with me instead of the planned hour. She showed me the process one time and had to leave. I immediately screwed up what she did and profanities were expressed for a few minutes. After I had the time to calm down I left the broken sensor for later and tried my luck at the next one. Luckily, the first one went relatively smoothly except for using the crimping tool. I just couldn’t figure it out and the parts were so small and falling out; it was just frustrating. After struggling with the crimping tool for twenty or so minutes I improvised and decided to “pre-crimp” the crimp connectors with a pair of needlenose pliers so that the parts would stay together temporarily. This realization gave me some confidence because the next two connections came out perfectly!
I was able to add some solder to these connections to strengthen them before adding some heatshrink for durability purposes. Now it was time to return to the first sensor that I broke. I connected one of the leads and added the solder. I know needed to figure out a way to frankenstein the broken lead back together so there was enough metal to solder to. I tried different things for about 30 minutes before I finally got something to hold. I tested this new creature of a sensor with my microcontroller and it was outputting values to the Serial Monitor. Light at the end of the tunnel! Everything ended up coming together nicely and I was able to add all the necessary heat shrink and the sensors are now sturdy enough to get put into some insoles.
The success that came out of the struggle associated with this process has given me confidence in my soldering skills and I know I can tackle more difficult things in the future. A great feeling for sure!
I am currently in a spot with the physical components where I am unsure of how to connect the final pieces. I have scoured YouTube, Adafruit and SparkFun for tutorials on how to use the Featherwing Proto board and the IMU sensor with no luck. It is definitely a part of the process that I need guidance on before I will feel comfortable moving forward. Another instance of uncertainty that presents a great opportunity to learn so I’m both anxious and excited.
Next Steps (in no particular order)
- Connecting/Soldering all wearable components together
- Securing the sensors into the insoles + Testing data sensing with Serial Monitor
- Finalizing Arduino code to output sensor data to a CSV file
- Finalizing Processing code with sample CSV file so it’s ready for real data
- Gathering test data from sensor insoles at home
- Testing Processing visualization from insole test data
- Figuring out way to house microcontroller and IMU sensor so they are not damaged in the field
- Gathering real field data with insoles from 4-5 participants
- Running Processing sketch with field data
- Printing/Plotting saved visualization frames
- Framing final prints/plots
- Presenting project with all deliverables