Category: Final Project

NoPeeNow, A Pet Behavior Adjustment Device that stops the cats to pee around in your home

I was so bothered by my kitty that she likes to pee on my bed, I checked everything she needs and I also took her to the vet. After I troubleshot everything I can think and listen to the doctor’s word, I realize she just has some bad behavior. So that’s why I decide to make some device to help to adjust her behavior and make my life easier.

Circuit Design:

Tinkercad link:

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/32G9xPuEdf8-copy-of-copy-of-nopeenow

Input sensor option:

  1. Smell sensor (❌ checked after pee)
  2. Motion sensor (❌ too sensitive)

Output sensor option:

  1. Air cleaner button press (❌ hard to test)
  2. Speaker (❌ for further step)

Material:

  1. Ultrasonic sensor *1
  2. Piezo *1
  3. Red LED *3
  4. 220ohm resistor *3
  5. Mini Breadboard *2
  6. USB cable *1
  7. Paper board *1
  8. Male-Female Wire * 10
  9. Printed cat’s photo *1
  10. Chip board *1

Brand Idea:

SweetPet: A brand that helps pet to adjust their behavior

NoPeeNow: A branch brand of prevent the kitty pee in the certain area

Video link: 

Instructable link:

https://www.instructables.com/No-Pee-Now-Pet-Behavior-Adjustment-Device-That-Sto/

Ting’s final project – Water surface

Introduction

Water Surface is an atmosphere lamp that lights up just like making little waves on the water surface. It can be placed on your table, shelf, or bedside to create a harmonious atmosphere, bringing an absorbing experience to the user.

Project tutorial (instructables) link: https://www.instructables.com/Water-Surface/?cb=1608108150

Process

Next step

This idea can also be developed a lot of different water ripple effects. For example, the effect of the water texture will be different with the strength of the touch. Or it can also create an .interference of waves when two people touch it at the same time.

Isabell’s Final Project – The Anti-Procrastinator

https://www.instructables.com/Anti-Procrastinator/

The Anti-Procrastinator in-progress:

My project’s purpose is to help users to focus and not procrastinate. The form was to make sure that the phone would be out of reach and the construction’s hardest part was the circuit and connecting it to the internet. My future projections are to making it to actually send the text and taking it further to connect a soundboard and making an alarm go off if the sensor detects the phone being taken out.

The learnings I learned through this process is that there are so many different technical difficulties you can run into with various factors that comes from it. This means that you would have to test different factors and must find the right problem to fix. If I were to take this further next time, I hope to make sure I can concisely be able to pin point the problems and be able to fix it on my own and be able to successfully get to my goal.

Cloudsphere

Project Description:

This is an abstract weather ball that shows temperature by changing as many as lights to dark blue/pink. The user could get a generous understanding of what the weather is like without reading the measurement or checking their phones, but tell from how bright the sphere light is. You can use it as an indoor/outdoor decoration and hang aside your window, or simply place it on your desk. It could assist you to choose your outfit for the day.

Project tutorial:

https://www.instructables.com/The-Cloudsphere/

Process:

complete circuit
testing
form of metal fabric

Finished project:

Zekun’s final project- Living Pixels

Seeing smart home products being more common in our lives, I’ve started to think about the relationship between people and these products. If one day, smart home products become an indispensable part of everyone’s life, what attitudes should we take to coexist with them? How are we going to treat them?

We like to call smart home products with a human name, like Alexa. It seems that we are trying to see them as individuals with intelligence. But are we treating them that way? If electrical appliances really have life, will we treat them differently?

So I made this LED matrix that comes to life when people leave the room.

For future iteration, I would like to imagine more ways for a person to interact with Living Pixels, for example, what if it can recognize a person’s facial expression and react to people’s mood or being influenced by how a person is treating it. I also would like to think of different ways for Living Pixels to express it’s emotion than animation.

https://www.instructables.com/Living-Pixels-Imagine-Technology-Has-Life/

Weather Note Reminder

This is a combination weather station and reminder. We can all check the weather on our phones, but sometimes and especially when one is trying to get out the door all that is needed is a quick way to the weather conditions. This weather station supplies a quick visual of current conditions: sunny, cloudy, rainy or snowing, the temperature and a brief note. Additionally, a motion-activated sensor triggers a scrolling display that offers up a helpful message: “mask + keys”

https://www.instructables.com/Weather-Note/

Circuit Progress photos:

circuit on breadboard and tripler (in progress and showing only 2 of 3 alphanumeric displays)

Early Sketch

Circuit Diagram

The PIR at the top toggles the “mask + keys” text. The neopixels light based on weather conditions from Weather Underground. The 7 segment displays forecasted high temperature for the day. The small OLED displays a short message from Remember the Milk.

Next Steps

Currently, the alphanumeric display shows just one message embedded in the code. Creating an IoT feed for this would allow the end user to change that message. Also, the current temperature reading is sent once a day by Weather Underground and is the forecast high for the day. Locating an IoT feed that could update the temperature every three hours would be more useful.

The Cookie Counter

https://www.instructables.com/The-Cookie-Counter/

I wanted to make this project because I love to bake and my favorite thing to make are chocolate chip cookies. I have made them so many times, that I can do it without thinking and since quarantine started, I have been baking so much more often. I thought that it would be a fun project to be able to combine what I love but also track that bad habit. I have the biggest sweet tooth, that I literally ate an entire package of Oreos in the 2 days that I had before shooting the video.

As for the form, it is totally dependant on the cookie jar that you use. I thought about getting one from a thrift store, but ultimately decided against it because I wanted a clean look. I chose this metal cookie jar because it has a recessed lid in which I was able to hid the electronics. It was the biggest one that I could find at a reasonable price, and it was still a tight fit. I was also interested in having a tracker on the jar itself, but I went with an email alert because I liked that way of collecting data more.

So for future improvements, I would love to solder the parts together instead of using a solderless breadboard. Also, it was the first time that I shot video, but in the future I would like to add a narrative and maybe some branding to the product.

Final project Yiwu

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Link to instructables: https://www.instructables.com/IoT-Arduino-Project/

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Photos in progress:

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A brief description:

This is a remote interactive device. Two people each own a device. When your device senses your presence, the other party’s device will light up. In this way we want people to connect with each other.
It consists of an ESP8266 board/two LED lights/an infrared ranging module.
In the future, it can make some changes in shape and color. At the same time, you can also change the effect of the light to make the light move.

The Bookminder: A Meeting Countdown Bookend

Here is the link to the Bookminder Instructables Tutorial.

The Bookminder is a meeting countdown bookend that shows you how many minutes you have until your next meeting. The bookend displays the meeting time using data from If This Then That applets that connect your Google calendar to your Adafruit.io feeds. The Bookminder is an alternative to constantly monitoring your screens in your apartment when you are on a break from zoom meetings. Not looking at your screens allows you an actual break and the minute timers are specifically customized to your schedule.

Process:

The materials I used to make the project and the form and circuit construction below.

The form of the bookend was inspired by other bookends I saw on the market that were layered pieces to create a solid form. I designed these layers to include a space for the circuit and the breadboard. Originally, I thought that I would be able to stack the display on the breadboard so I created the bookend with those dimensions in mind, but it ended up not working out that way. Since this is an interesting year, I designed the files and sent them over to the VFL to construct, which they did by cutting out MDF, laser cutting it to include the sections for my board, and attaching it together. I then hand painted it when I brought it home.

For the circuitry, I based my code and my wiring on Becky’s WIFI weather display and got her help on making adjustments to read the countdown on the display as well as got her help with the wiring.

In the future, I will adjust my bookend’s dimensions to include space for the whole breadboard and also include the depth measurements of the wires. Additionally, I would love to be able to construct the bookend myself in the future so I could get the learning experience of building. Also, for a more even paint texture, I would spray paint each layer first, let it dry, and then attach it. I didn’t do that this time since my building isn’t spray paint friendly. Also, now that I’m using the alphanumeric display I could also include additional text as well in the display in the future.