Author: Jacey Chen

You(=I) Electronic Beating Heart

For my final project, I am making an electronic beating heart with a heart rate simulator. This is a unique way to show your feelings towards someone that you are into, by beaming the lights according to your heart rate. When you hold the figure in your hands, the lights shine and show how nervous you are when standing in front of someone that you have always been longing for.

Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14VouTckLKteHaaX9FlbXrbm_4z0uudHHnqyCpzqJBrQ/edit?usp=sharing

Circuit:

Jacey IoT & Concepts

My IoT:

Troubleshooting: I ran into this issue while trying to program my wifi board.

Concepts:

  1. LED Moodlight that changes color according to the mood set (ex. happy – red, anxious – purple). I am thinking of using the LED light as the main light source and inside a sphere-like shape. (Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfRFWxaPOLY&ab_channel=Breaks%27n%27Makes)
  2. Water lamp: a small night lamp that displays the light with a water-ish kind of effect. When I wave my hand, the light will turn on. The light will move in an outward motion if I wave twice. In order to turn it off, I press the button in the middle (?) (Reference: https://www.instructables.com/Water-Surface/?cb=1608108150)
  3. Heartbeat stimulator: Soldering wires into a heart-shaped model, with the boards within. I might need an MX30102 sensor as the heart-rate monitor.

Horns and Flowers

For this Halloween, I decided to dress up as the original character that I created during doodling sessions.

Thank you Shuncheng for the photo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sketch
The light (blue) wrapping around the headset
The components: Neopixels mini + Gemma
I was planning the wire directions and having it as a reference before I dived into soldering
THEY WORKED (kinda looked like a stick)

Lighting demonstration (in hand): https://drive.google.com/file/d/19QdrI_sya8fL57lMTesx0xytlh1rQ_-F/view?usp=share_link

Lighting demonstration (around headset): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H1rgx87lP-WiUEMKeRn76pbc8YEzj4wt/view?usp=share_link

Neopixel circuit & Halloween Idea

  1. Circuit

Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XJUhQfVrXBUXdyjjeczzAPgHFIZEVf3c/view?usp=sharing

2. Halloween idea: Flower Vomiting Disease (Hanahaki Disease)

Hanahaki Disease (花吐き病 ) is a fictional disease in which the victim coughs up flower petals when they suffer from one-sided love. It ends when the beloved returns their feelings (romantic love only; strong friendship is not enough), or when the victim dies. It can be cured through surgical removal, but when the infection is removed, the victim’s romantic feelings for their love also disappear.

A Sad Blob of Seal

This is a sad blob of seal that I made with two different colors of lighting inside the stuffings. The purpose of this plush is for wrist rest when using computers. Two of the challenges that I ran into during this project were soldering the wires (one of the wires snapped and I had to re-solder it) and closing the stitches as I was handsewing throughout the entire project.

The lights are positioned where the wrist would be placed, so it’s like giving a flashy feeling when placing your wrist on that particular area.

Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HCo0_MU1U_glzWJ4duK48Z9exYk7RvvZ/view?usp=sharing

Circuit:

Oh no! Our Arduino! It’s Broken!

(almost broken by intentional smashing onto the ground but they’re expensive so I decided not to)

  1. In-class exercise: LED blinking: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u5P_xKM0teg8UwrVVxMXjyhTjTgXO1O2/view?usp=sharing
  2. Multiple LEDs: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DuE2396Tx8FZ78g15lkeXpVwujho0RIC/view?usp=sharing
  3. Multi-colored LEDs: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xjpfeHdYcTq4_U6xNDIXUIZOLILzn0lx/view?usp=sharing
  4. LED fading: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HssSHlFMMVA4UQH2sX6IFvnosjnsBlQ4/view?usp=sharing
  5. Button: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RrLQwmfA8TK7b-MH8IpggWNPmoFBo3-J/view?usp=sharing
  6. Potentiometer: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F-fg0bpHXghNO7QLmq-MnLMMLSY7_s5v/view?usp=sharing
  7. Serial Monitor (button): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dFkVYB8on9GHtYja1aT5Sljj3qFumZDA/view?usp=sharing

AT&T MicroCell Teardown

The electronic piece that I took for the teardown is the AT&T Microcell. I thought Wi-Fi routers are pretty interesting as I had some prior experience with putting electronics together (I put together my own PC) and I thought the motherboard for the router should be quite similar to the PC ones. Therefore I decided to give it a try. 

Step 1: The first step to take the components apart is to remove sticker from bottom of case to reveal the 2 screws and unscrew them. After taking the screws out, pull the orange part away (initially I thought they were glued together, but then I realized that they were snapped together so I had to pull them apart). 

My naive self was actually trying to cut it in half but then reality has proven me wrong.

Step 2: Once the orange part comes out, check the interior to see which side is screwed together with the motherboard. This is important because this helps identify which part needs to be taken apart first (which is the part that is not screwed with the motherboard).

Step 3: After identifying, unsnap the white siding that was not screwed with the motherboard and unscrew the 4 corners of the PCB.

Step 4: After taking one of the white slidings out, remove the other white sliding.

Front view of the motherboard after removing the second sliding.

Tools used: Screwdriver, X-acto knife, plier.

List of components and materials:

The Ralink and the other picoChip are two System-on Chips.

Manufacturing Techniques:

  • SSH port on base-station, Nmap OS, and service versioning reports
  • The router was built like a tower/cell with a bright orange to give a sense of energy while providing network coverage.

I’m Jacey ⸂⸂⸜(രᴗര๑)⸝⸃⸃

Hi! My name is Jacey. I was born in Guangdong, China, and raised in Vancouver, Canada. I went to Parsons School of Design for my undergrad degree, majoring in Communication Design and double minors in Immersive Storytelling (basically a mix of design and technology like 3D, AR/VR, and UIX) and Japanese Studies. I have a background in brand identity design, editorial and typography, UI/UX, and 3D modeling. I graduated in May 2022 (this year!) and was a design apprentice under a digital marketing company named REQ during the summer. I have a very chonky cat named Chimmy (he’s 3!), a rescued cat that I got when he was 3 months old (^-^*)ノ I look forward to the sewing sections of the class because I have barely done it before ( •̀ᴗ•́ )و ̑̑ and I like random weird (dark humor) memes from Reddit so there’s that as well (´∀｀)

My IG is @jacey_ch ┻┳|･ω･)ﾉ

Me
My ugly cat