Discussion:<\/strong><\/p>\n“With more time try having it be battery powered to be completely portable ”<\/p>\n
I totally agree. I’m not sure in the current design where I would place a battery, but I’m sure there’s room for something. I think the wires had a little too much space to spread out, in a future iteration I would like to set up a path for the wires rather than the open design so that I can better place other parts of the project.<\/p>\n
“A closed design might be better for something like this”<\/p>\n
I think I agree, especially with the wires adding to the bulk. In the first version, pre soldering, the wires were sticking out the sides and it was pretty messy, though I think after cleaning it up the open design isn’t so bad to look at. I think the project looks cooler having the layers open like they are, but I think it also makes the project a lot more fragile.<\/p>\n
“Millimeters is probably not the most useful unit for measurement?”<\/p>\n
I agree. Since mm are such a small unit though, for the purpose of testing I thought they would be better to use. If I had more time and also more room on the LCD it would be useful to convert the measurement into inches or cm.<\/p>\n
I really liked my final product. At first I was disappointed by the bulkiness of it, and the difficulty in getting an accurate reading, but after some soldering and a change of string, I was happy with the results. There are a lot of mistakes I made, and I feel that I could have gone farther with the case, but for a first laser cutting experience I thought it turned out well.<\/p>\n
I feel that I learned a lot through this project. I struggled just to get the rotary encoder working, and if it wasn’t for Zach explaining the math, I’m sure it would have been a nightmare for me to figure out how to turn those measurements into distance. Though now looking back, I’m surprised that I struggled so much. I feel more prepared than I was before in starting what I’d consider a ‘technical’ project. I’m a big fan of motors and lights, but translating an input to an accurate reading is something I would usually avoid. After seeing the project work though, I feel a lot more confident. Something I would do differently next time is prepare the structure a little more. I like the design I used, but while putting it together I realized how much easier it would have been if I had taken every wire into consideration, not just the parts they attach to. I also ended up using glue to put the pieces in place, but in hindsight I would have preferred to use screws as much as possible.<\/p>\n
I also learned how to laser cut (at least with the help of the IDeATe staff) and I want to try it out again soon!<\/p>\n
If I were to iterate on this project I would definitely change the screen to an OLED, theres just not enough room on the LCD to show the readings. Also I’d like to add a battery so that the device is portable. One thing I wasn’t able to get to that I originally thought would be cool is to use a spring. This way the string would automatically rewind itself after being pulled out. I opted instead for a crank, but it became clear it was faster just to wind the spool itself. I also would rework the case and add holes for the Arduino and LCD to attach with screws. I might also add markings to the string just for clarities sake, and maybe figure out a way to make the engraving more visible, or less obstructed. I could add a receipt printer using bluetooth that could print out the measurements taken. Lastly I’d like to add a button that could convert the units into different measurements.<\/p>\n
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Technical Information:<\/strong><\/p>\nSchematic and Block Diagram:<\/p>\n
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Code:<\/strong><\/p>\n\/* \r\nElectronic Tape Measurer\r\nJohn Hewitt\r\nThis project uses a rotary encoder to take clothing measurements in mm\r\n\r\nThe buttons map to pins 6 and 8, while the rotary encoder is mapped to pins A2 and A3\r\n\r\nI used this setup to get the rotary encoder working\r\nhttps:\/\/forum.arduino.cc\/t\/getting-input-from-rotary-encoders\/620026\r\n\r\n*\/\r\n\r\n#include <Wire.h>\r\n#include <LiquidCrystal_I2C.h>\r\n\r\n \r\nLiquidCrystal_I2C screen(0x27, 16, 2);\r\n\r\n\r\n \/\/ used to draw a lil heart :] https:\/\/maxpromer.github.io\/LCD-Character-Creator\/ \r\nbyte heart[] = {\r\n B00000,\r\n B01010,\r\n B10101,\r\n B10001,\r\n B01010,\r\n B00100,\r\n B00000,\r\n B00000\r\n};\r\n\r\nint clockP = A3;\r\nint data = A2;\r\nint count = 0;\r\nint c = HIGH;\r\nint cLast = HIGH;\r\nint d = HIGH;\r\n\r\n\r\nint collar = 0;\r\nint sleeve = 0;\r\nint chest = 0;\r\nint waist = 0;\r\n\r\nfloat current = 0;\r\n\r\nint enter_button = 6;\r\nint zero_button = 8;\r\n\r\nfloat measurement;\r\nfloat measurement_last;\r\n\r\nbool no_change_on_screen = true;\r\n\r\nbool measurement_mode = false;\r\n\r\nbool start_screen = true;\r\nbool start_display_up = false;\r\n\r\nbool still_measuring = false;\r\n\r\nint on_step = 1;\r\n\r\nvoid setup() {\r\n \r\n pinMode (enter_button, INPUT);\r\n pinMode (zero_button, INPUT);\r\n\r\n pinMode (clockP, INPUT_PULLUP);\r\n pinMode (data, INPUT_PULLUP);\r\n \r\n \r\n screen.init();\r\n screen.backlight();\r\n screen.home();\r\n screen.display();\r\n screen.createChar(0, heart); \/\/initialiaze heart to zero screen.write(0);\r\n screen.clear();\r\n}\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nvoid loop() {\r\n\r\n\r\n \/\/rotary encoder code \r\n c = digitalRead(clockP); \/\/ read pin A as clock\r\n d = digitalRead(data); \/\/ read pin B as data\r\n \r\n \r\n if (c != cLast) { \/\/ clock pin has changed value\r\n d = c^d; \/\/ work out direction using an XOR\r\n if ( d ) {\r\n count++;\r\n } else {\r\n count--;\r\n }\r\n cLast = c;\r\n }\r\n\r\n\r\n if (digitalRead(zero_button) == HIGH) {\r\n \/\/set current value to zero\r\n count = 0;\r\n }\r\n\r\n\/\/43.9823\r\n measurement = ((((float)count\/ (float) 16)) *30);\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n if (start_screen == true) {\r\n if (!start_display_up) {\r\n screen.setCursor(2, 0);\r\n screen.write(0);\r\n screen.print(\" WELCOME \");\r\n screen.write(0);\r\n start_display_up = true;\r\n }\r\n if (digitalRead(enter_button) == HIGH) {\r\n start_screen = false;\r\n start_display_up = false;\r\n measurement_mode = true;\r\n no_change_on_screen = false;\r\n still_measuring = true;\r\n on_step = 1;\r\n delay(200);\r\n }\r\n }\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n if (measurement_mode == true) {\r\n\r\n if (measurement_last != measurement) {\r\n measurement_last = measurement;\r\n no_change_on_screen = false;\r\n }\r\n\r\n if (still_measuring == true) {\r\n \r\n if (digitalRead(enter_button) == HIGH) {\r\n \r\n if (on_step == 1) {\r\n collar = measurement;\r\n on_step = 2;\r\n \r\n no_change_on_screen = false;\r\n \r\n } else if (on_step == 2) {\r\n sleeve = measurement;\r\n on_step = 3;\r\n \r\n no_change_on_screen = false;\r\n \r\n } else if (on_step == 3) {\r\n chest = measurement;\r\n on_step = 4;\r\n \r\n no_change_on_screen = false;\r\n \r\n } else if (on_step == 4) {\r\n waist = measurement;\r\n still_measuring = false;\r\n\r\n no_change_on_screen = false;\r\n \r\n still_measuring = false;\r\n }\r\n delay(200);\r\n }\r\n }\r\n\r\n if (!no_change_on_screen) {\r\n screen.clear();\r\n \r\n screen.setCursor(0, 0);\r\n if (on_step == 1) {\r\n screen.print(\"collar:\");\r\n screen.print(measurement);\r\n } else if (on_step == 2) {\r\n screen.print(\"sleeve:\");\r\n screen.print(measurement);\r\n } else if (on_step == 3) {\r\n screen.print(\"chest:\");\r\n screen.print(measurement);\r\n } else if (on_step == 4) {\r\n screen.print(\"waist:\");\r\n screen.print(measurement);\r\n }\r\n\r\n \r\n screen.setCursor(11, 0);\r\n screen.print(\"a)\");\r\n screen.print(collar);\r\n\r\n screen.setCursor(0, 1);\r\n \r\n screen.print(\"b)\");\r\n screen.print(sleeve);\r\n screen.print(\" \");\r\n \r\n \r\n screen.print(\"c)\");\r\n screen.print(chest);\r\n screen.print(\" \");\r\n\r\n \r\n screen.print(\"d)\");\r\n screen.print(waist);\r\n\r\n no_change_on_screen = true;\r\n }\r\n\r\n if (!still_measuring) {\r\n if (digitalRead(enter_button) == HIGH) {\r\n screen.clear();\r\n measurement_mode = false;\r\n collar = 0;\r\n sleeve = 0;\r\n chest = 0;\r\n waist = 0;\r\n start_screen = true;\r\n on_step = 1;\r\n delay(200);\r\n }\r\n }\r\n \r\n }\r\n \r\n}<\/pre>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For this project I made a device that will record the measurements you take on an lcd screen using a string wound around a rotary encoder. Overview: This…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":14493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[89],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.ideate.cmu.edu\/60-223\/f2021\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.ideate.cmu.edu\/60-223\/f2021\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.ideate.cmu.edu\/60-223\/f2021\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.ideate.cmu.edu\/60-223\/f2021\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.ideate.cmu.edu\/60-223\/f2021\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14460"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/courses.ideate.cmu.edu\/60-223\/f2021\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14531,"href":"https:\/\/courses.ideate.cmu.edu\/60-223\/f2021\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14460\/revisions\/14531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.ideate.cmu.edu\/60-223\/f2021\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.ideate.cmu.edu\/60-223\/f2021\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.ideate.cmu.edu\/60-223\/f2021\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.ideate.cmu.edu\/60-223\/f2021\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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