Welcome Back to The Cassio Blog!!!!! That is what I am titling my releases from this class from now on.
For our third and final project, we were instructed to create any product that would improve day-to-day life using Arduino and everything else we have learned in class.
I started brainstorming by looking through the old WordPress blogs that old POD students wrote for their final projects. I was amazed!!! I had a couple ideas stemming from music, midi board, and light before hand, but the posts really helped propel me to my final three.
- Typewriter Pager For Friends
This project stemmed from my main issue in my life: I hate texting on my phone. Spending time staring into a screen more than I have to is unappealing to me, but I still want to contact my friends and see their messages.
I thought of a pager… and thus my Typewriter Pager was born! I want to create two small screens with a keyboard attached, that the user can give to their friend and then exchange cute messages and ideas through Wifi. [Note: Talk to Becky about feasibility]
2. Phone Stand + Speaker Magnifier + Lights that React to Music
The next issue that needed to be solved was… What to do when my Bluetooth speaker dies at a party???? The Phone Stand Speaker with Lights!!! It is a product that boosts the sound from your phone and has a light that reacts to the music.
3. DIY Soundboard or Midi Board
I recently took a DIY Guitar Pedals class (Thank you Kyle) and I learned a lot about soldering and creating my own pedal. This started the thought of incorporating this new knowledge and skills into my final project into some kind of Midi or Soundboard that I can control the sounds that are put into it.
If anyone has extra thoughts or comments, I would love to hear below!! <3
Great brainstorm, Sofia! Your ideas all sound fun and personally satisfying to you, so that’s a good start. I can’t make the final pick for you, but would encourage you to ask yourself which of your ideas has the most compelling story, and what the definition of success is for each idea.
I think that a purpose-built messaging device for BFFs sounds pretty cool. The implementation with Arduino will be a little technical because it’s all about keyboard input and messages traded in the cloud. I could see this idea built with any of Adafruit’s screens such as https://www.adafruit.com/category/63 and instead of a full qwerty keyboard, i’d encourage you to develop an interface that lets you choose between preprogrammed messages or some kind of shorthand. I have one of these: https://www.adafruit.com/product/922 and it’s a total pain to type on (regardless of the fact that it works with raspberry pi and not arduino, just as reference for how awful tiny keyboards can be).
For your second idea around the phone party dock, i think it can be broken down into these mini-projects:
the physical dock (does it have wireless charging? iphone magnetic/etc)
the bluetooth speaker
receiver: something like https://www.amazon.com/MakerHawk-Bluetooth-Receiver-Amplifier-Speaker/dp/B08D94PGCG/
USB speakers https://www.adafruit.com/product/1363
or
amplifier https://www.adafruit.com/product/987
and
speakers https://www.adafruit.com/product/1669
the music-reactive lights
Only the music-reactive lights need Arduino, for which you can use a microphone (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1063) or a line in from the bluetooth speaker to an analog input, then write a program to change the light animations based on the audio amplitude (volume).
For your third idea, I guess I’m wanting to know more about your inspirations for the sound board, so that we can better define what success looks like. Are you looking to integrate a particular list of equipment? Participate in a group synth jam? You can also create a pedal or synth with Arduino for your project if you want.