Day 9 - Testing

Sciencey Testing

Today we set out our planter for community testing...

Overall, the information we gathered concluded that, while the planter box functioned well as seating... the disappointment that the buttons did nothing was saddening.

Day 8 - Finalizing Electronics and Planting

Finalizing

Today we began debugging the program and hardware in order to make the planter work.

Once again not much to say either than we continued to do mundane troubleshooting with the electronics.


We had quite a few road bumps with the electronics, Arduino is finicky, We needed to have 4 perfect contacts for all 4 of the buttons, we needed to organize every signal cable and it's ground, and much more.

All of these difficulties led to something like this...

Which meant that, sadly, we were unable to complete a working game.

Day 7 - Mashing all the bits together

Mashing all the bits together

Today we began plugging it all in and testing it all out... It was slow, arduous, and dangerous.

All I can say about today is that we all spent the majority of it crawling under our 500+ pound wooden monstrosity of a planter box that was up on stilts. I am willing to risk my life for the completion of this project.

Day 6 - Relays, Relays, Relays.

Day 6 - Relays and BirdNests

Today we began our serious work on the electronics and installed the benches onto our planter.

This was also out hardest work day, I spent the entirety of 3 blocks and both breaks working.

1A- First block we organzied the team and finished making the breadboard permanent

Break- Began organizing and soldering electronics

2A- Organized and soldered Relays

Lunch- Organized and soldered Relays, then untangled electronics and installed into planter.

3A- Began installing electronics into planter.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BySmwuLoMK54aU0yWGN4V0dVTE0/view?usp=sharing

Day 5 - Electricity Is Hard

Day 5

Today we finished the basic build of the planter box and began working on the electronics. Corbin and I spent most of this day testing the code on bread board and attempting to localize the hardware.

Today was pretty frustrating as far as the electronics goes... It was difficult to test the program without the electronic parts from amazon, so we just ended up using buttons, LEDs and resistors in preparation for installation into the planter.

Day 4 - Planter Basics

Really Starting to Build

     Physical:

Today we got the basic frame of the planter completely built, along with cutting the benches and righting up the structural components.

      Media:

Today we built the project website, along with mugshots and role descriptions written by team members. 

http://interactiveplanterbox.weebly.com/our-work.html

Looks really nice by the way.

     Electronics:

Today we completely finished the game program and the basic bread boarding previous to the relays and switches which are on the way.

Day 3 - The Building Begins

Day 3 - The Building Begins

Today we finalized the electronic designs, went to home depot, and began cutting and building.

Diego and Claire went to Home Depot and came back with wood and some supplies for the water drip.

     Although productive, the day did not go by without flaws. To no one's fault, home depot didnt have the correct sized tubing for the pumps we purchased. As a result, we will have to deal with using smaller tubes than designed. I believe that through the clever use of duct tape and other material, we can make it work.