Complex Kinect Blog

Sometime between the end of our last sprint and when we were ready to start testing our finalized code, our raspberry pi camera stopped working. We began getting messages telling us to check all our connections and update our firmware. We googled all the messages we were getting and checked all our connections several times but were not able to resolve our errors. In class on Friday, we told Aaron what was going on and he gave us two more raspberry pi cameras to try. We tried both of those cameras (or so we thought) and nothing was working. We were getting different error messages with different cameras but still error messages nonetheless. Katya and I spent several hours last night trying our camera on three different raspberry pis (but still with our SD card) and trying to disconnect and reconnect all camera connections. Instead of running our code, we simply tried (and failed) to take a still image with each camera. Finally, we met this morning and decided we should start documentin

The final sprint has come to pass and demo day is just around the corner! The mechanical team has worked hard to get the entire mechanical system up and running and the software/electrical team is currently working toe get the system flawlessly integrated with the web app and integrating the sound detection code into the system. We are really excited about the final demo day and we think we are in good shape for getting all of our ducks in a row in time. Stay tuned!

We have an MVP! (Depending on your definition of functioning) last night the whole team worked really hard to fabricate and assemble the entire structure. We managed to fabricate the entire frame and get 9 origami nodes fabricated and mounted to the frame. Our integrated system was a 3x3 matrix moving in response to motion in the surrounding environment however the gearing system for moving the nodes open and close is not working as well as we expected due the spring force caused by the node that we had not accounted for in our design. Our goals for the next sprint is to fix our mechanical system so that the nodes open and close smoothly, test and incorporate our motion code for a 3x6 frame, get our web app for controlling the structure up and running, and manufacture the remaining 9 origami node. 

Over Thanksgiving break, Gracey, Peter and Vicky worked on the website, and we now have functional and aesthetic documentation! We also got the site hosted by Olin before we left for break, so it can be viewed at poe.olin.edu/2017/complexkinect

Howdy! Mechanical has been working on designing the final structure and man has it been a sprint. We have gathered all of our materials at this point and over Thanksgiving break we were able to print most of the pieces that we need to put everything together. This week we will build the final structure and get our MVP working before Friday.  We have a lot to do. We ran into some issues early in the week with the motors we purchased because we ordered the incorrect ones and we are currently in the process of deciding what to do now. We have also realized that we are going to be pressed short for time because manufacturing has proven to take longer than we had originally thought. Stay tuned

Sprint 2 ended on Friday and we have our MVP! What that means for mechanical is that we have a box that can move nine different nodes, but control 3 sets independently, using three actuators. We made our prototype with some scrap .21" hardwood with the laser cutters. We converted the rotational motion of the sliders into linear motion with a pin and rack design, with the rack mounted on a slider with ball bearings to reduce the friction. The three gears were connected with a rod so that as one gear rotates the rest rotate as well. Our challenge coincided with retaining the gears with the bearings linearly, since the gear shaft would often tilt down (it was not a perfect press fit. We ended capping both sides of the shaft to retain it, but due to a misprint, the final design was switched, so the cap was not as effective as it should have been. The biggest issues with this design is that there was a lot of friction in the gears, and the system was too constrained, which made rotatin